Anti-Terror Police Officer Wins Racial Discrimination Claim

A British officer of Asian descent, whose job included fighting terrorism and illegal immigration, has won his tribunal claim against Kent police for racial discrimination.

Angus Bowler was an officer at Kent Police for 25 years, in which he specialised in counter terrorism activities and anti-immigration duties in accordance with the frontier branch. At the time of his discrimination he was working at the Channel Tunnel station in Coquelles, France where he had lived with his family since 2010.

PC Bowler has every intention of building his career with Kent police but was overlooked for promotion in 2014. He expressed his concerns about the seemingly unreasonable snub with the relevant personnel of Kent police force but believed the internal investigation into his grievance was unsatisfactory. Following his disclosure he became the target of bullying and discrimination.

The Ashford employment tribunal ruled that after questioning internal police conduct, PC Bowler received further discrimination by seeing his personal performance review marks lowered, and his visits to French custom police officers suddenly restricted due to him not getting permission for doing so; a restriction not enforced upon the white officers he worked with.

PC Bowler was informed his claim had no merit by DCI Andy Somerville, whose responsibility it was to investigate the grievance. However, when cross-examined at the tribunal, Somerville stated that he reached this conclusion after reviewing the “race relations act”; presumably a reference to the 2010 Equality Act.

However, DCI Somerville found the legislation to be ‘convoluted’, so to better understand the law regarding race relations he made the unconventional move of consulting the Oxford English dictionary to define the meaning behind racism. After sharing this definition with other officers, they all agreed they had not acted in a racist manner towards PC Bowler.

Speaking at the April 2016 Tribunal, PC Bowler spoke of his sufferance: “Having dedicated more than 25 years to the police force, it was shocking and crushing to find that I was treated differently because of the colour of my skin. This case has caused me and my family a great deal of turmoil and upheaval, but I am relieved to finally be able to put this ordeal behind me and move on.”

A Kent police spokesman made a statement following the ruling: “Kent police was legally represented at the hearing and acknowledges the decision of the employment tribunal. A date for a remedies hearing is yet to be confirmed.”