Sussex officer to face misconduct hearing over pork prank on Jewish colleague
An officer from Sussex Police faces a disciplinary hearing this week for allegedly contaminating the food of a colleague whom he knew to be Jewish with pork.
The officer, identified only as Police Sergeant Jacobs, will appear before a panel at Sussex Police headquarters in Lewes, East Sussex tomorrow (November 19) to face claims that his conduct breached police equality and diversity standards.
A notice posted on the force’s website stated: “On March 8, 2019, knowing that another officer is Jewish, PS Jacobs deliberately dangled a pizza containing pepperoni over that officer’s food. A piece of pepperoni subsequently fell onto that officer’s food meaning they could not eat it.”
The consumption of pork is prohibited under Jewish law.
Under the standards of professional behaviour set out by the College of Policing, officers are required to agree to act with “fairness and impartiality” and “not discriminate unlawfully and unfairly”.
This includes considering the needs of “protected characteristic groupings”, including religion and belief”, according to the national code of ethics.
