Two UK police officers committed gross misconduct during a stop and search of British sprinter Bianca Williams in London, a disciplinary hearing found Wednesday.
Williams, a European and Commonwealth 100m gold medallist, accused the Metropolitan Police of racial profiling after she was stopped three years ago.
The force, Britain’s largest, later apologised after she disclosed that she and her partner, the Portuguese 400m runner Ricardo dos Santos, had been repeatedly stopped.
Williams, 29, and dos Santos, 28, were handcuffed and their car was searched in July 2020 in London’s Maida Vale area but nothing was found. The athletes’ young child was in the car at the time.
The couple were not arrested and were allowed on their way.
Williams and Santos complained to a police watchdog, and five officers were accused of gross misconduct — allegations they denied.
The panel concluded that two of the officers, Jonathan Clapham and Sam Franks, had lied about smelling cannabis during the stop and search.
The hearing’s chairwoman said their conduct had breached standards of professional behaviour in respect of honesty and integrity, which amounted to gross misconduct.
The three other officers were cleared of wrongdoing.
After the incident, Williams told BBC radio: “They (the police) see a black male driving a nice car, an all-black car, and they assume that he was involved in some sort of gang, drug, violence problem.”
The Met said at the time that they were satisfied, after reviewing footage from social media and bodycam footage, that the officers acted appropriately.
They said they stopped the car after assessing that it was being driven in a suspicious manner. The area was being patrolled because of a surge in violence.
Last year, the police standards watchdog said that British forces disproportionately stopped and searched people from Black, Asian and other ethnic minority backgrounds
The Met accepted the watchdog’s recommendations that it should amend its stop and search policies.
