An employment judge in the United Kingdom ruled three white police officers were passed over for a promotion because of their race. According to BBC, a Thames Valley Police superintendent was told to appoint an “Asian” sergeant to the rank of detective inspector to improve diversity of its senior staff. [1] Following the publication of an Employment Tribunal judgement which found that @ThamesVP discriminated against three white police officers because of their race when appointing an officer to a Priority Crime Team, @matthew_barber has released the following statement: pic.twitter.com/LSEyIieVPa — Thames Valley OPCC (@TV_PCC) August 14, 2024 “It is critical in building confidence across our whole community that there is never any discrimination in policing. In this case, the Employment Tribunal found that the Force had discriminated against the claimants on the basis of race. This is clearly unacceptable and should not have happened,” Matthew Barber, Police & Crime Commissioner for Thames Valley, said. “I recognise Thames Valley Police’s commitment to building a workforce that represents the whole community, but it is apparent from the judgement that the Force was wrong on this occasion in that the processes it followed were not fair, transparent, or competitive,” he continued. “I am clear that Thames Valley Police must treat everyone equally when making appointments, determined solely on merit. I will ensure a full review into the processes, policies and approach by the Force to ensure this cannot happen in the future,” he added. White police officers passed over for promotion win race discrimination claim https://t.co/vtfe0onRL7 — Harry Tangye (@Ex_arv_sgt) August 13, 2024 Per BBC: Three officers brought employment tribunal proceedings against the force, claiming to have been disadvantaged because of their race – described by the tribunal as “white British”. Employment Judge Robin Postle said the decision “clearly constituted positive discrimination”. Det Insp Phillip Turner-Robson, Insp Graham Horton and Kirsteen Bishop, a custody inspector, had been working with the force for between 19 and 26 years when they were blocked from applying for the role, an employment tribunal was told. The tribunal heard that in August 2022 plans were discussed for a job advert for a detective inspector in the force’s “priority crime team” at Aylesbury to be put out as soon as possible. Having been made aware of the vacancy, Det Insp Turner-Robson expressed his interest on the same day, the Norwich tribunal heard. But the following month, Supt Emma Baillie made the decision to move Sgt Sidhu, whose forename was not provided, into the role without undertaking any competitive process or advertising the vacancy to staff, the tribunal was told. According to reports, the superintendent was told to “make it happen” by the deputy chief constable. “Superintendent Baillie and no doubt the deputy chief constable had been warned of the risk of operating such a policy,” the tribunal said, according to Independent. White Officers Win Discrimination Claim Against Thames Valley Police Over Diversity-Driven Promotion Three experienced white police officers from @ThamesVP have won a significant employment tribunal after a judge ruled that they were unfairly passed over for promotion due to… pic.twitter.com/qVb14lQro8 — Emergency-Services.News (@ES_News_) August 13, 2024 Independent reports: Employment Judge Robin Postle concluded that the three white officers were directly discriminated by reason of the protected characteristic of race. “The Superintendent made a decision to move Police Sergeant Sidhu into the detective inspector role without any competitive assessment process taking place,” the Judge said. “It went beyond mere encouragement, disadvantaging those officers who did not share Sergeant Sidhu’s protected characteristic of race and who were denied the opportunity to apply for the role. “It was not a proportionate means of achieving a legitimate aim. “Clearly, Superintendent Baillie was only focused on ‘making it work’ rather than carrying out a balancing exercise. “Superintendent Baillie’s decision… clearly constituted positive discrimination.”