EXCLUSIVE

by Joe Walker

joewalker@thekmgroup.co.uk

Almost 70 complaints of racism have been made against police in the county in the last three years.

The grievances since the start of 2008 range from racist jokes told at the station to an officer mimicking the accent of a complainant.

Five of the complaints resulted in misconduct hearings, with one officer resigning last year for being "a member of a group whose members made discriminatory comments".

Another faced a rap in the same year after bosses investigated claims he was "unjustifiably targeting black people for stop checks".

One officer didn't even wait for a misconduct hearing, resigning after it emerged they made discriminatory remarks while off-duty.

The majority of the 69 complaints alleged that the officer's actions "were due to the complainant's ethnicity".

Almost a quarter were "locally resolved", described by police as "a way of dealing with a complaint by solving, explaining, clearing up or settling the matter directly with the complainant".

A further 38 were discontinued, unsubstantiated, withdrawn or dispensed with, while seven - some going back to 2009 - are still classified as "live".

Officers in north Kent received the most complaints with 20 filed, while Medway followed in second with 16.

Mid Kent officers - covering Maidstone - had 14 complaints made against them and there were seven allegations against officers in west Kent.

South Kent police faced 11 complaints.