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PoliceEquality, diversity and inclusionLatest NewsLearning & developmentSexual orientation

Police chief’s son apologises for calling all WPCs ‘dykes’

by Personnel Today 19 Oct 2009
by Personnel Today 19 Oct 2009

A chief constable’s son has embarrassed his father by displaying offensive placards at a police training event.

Jack McPherson, 17, held up banners including one that proclaimed: “All policewomen are dykes”, at a riot training exercise.

He was removed by officers and his father, Norfolk chief constable Ian McPherson, was forced to cut short a meeting after he was told about the situation and asked to intervene, reports the Daily Mail.

McPherson senior, who is the Association of Chief Police Officers’ (ACPO) spokesman on children, is then understood to have ordered his son to issue an apology.

A police source said: “The banner was a real show-stopper. Members of the public who take part in these events are meant to make them trying for officers, but the sign – and the person who wrote it – took everyone into completely new territory.

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“The constabulary has tried to play this down but it has caused a lot of anger among the rank and file and has been an embarrassment for the chief. Some of the remarks were particularly offensive.”

A police source said that a 17-year-old had been involved in displaying an inappropriate banner at a training day at RAF Coltishall near Norwich, but that he had apologised and no further action would be taken.

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