Met Police Detective faces the sack for ‘racist WhatsApp messages’ after her boyfriend told bosses

A police detective could be sacked after her estranged boyfriend apparently reported her for allegedly writing racist WhatsApp messages.

Det Sgt Victoria Teagle, 38, is alleged to have referred to a colleague with an Asian background as a ‘C***** b****’.

Her partner, a police inspector, is said to have handed the messages over to anti-corruption officers, The Sun reports.

Det Sgt Teagle, who is based in Haringey, north London, is now on restricted duties and may face disciplinary proceedings.

Det Sgt Victoria Teagle, 38, is alleged to have referred to a colleague with an Asian background as a ‘C***** b****’.

A statement from the Met Police revealed that she is subject to a professional standards investigation.

It went on: ‘In January and April 2021 the officer is alleged to have sent a number of messages via WhatsApp to a colleague in which she repeatedly used a highly offensive and discriminatory racial slur in reference to another colleague.’

Last month, Met Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley criticised the police recruitment process, saying ‘a big proportion’ of officers in his force are ‘not properly deployable’ due to health and performance issues.

Sir Mark, who has been head of Britain’s biggest police force since September, said the bureaucracy surrounding the removal of officers is posing a ‘challenge’ to his force.

Some 3,000 Met officers are not fully deployable due to concerns over mental or physical health or their performance, while a further 500 are suspended or on restricted duties because they have been accused of serious misconduct, according to The Times.

There are more than 34,000 officers currently serving in the Met.

In an interview, Sir Mark, 58, said he supports officers injured on duty and those suffering mental health problems but criticised the recruitment system.

A statement from the Met Police revealed that Det Sgt Teale is subject to a professional standards investigation.

Sir Mark Rowley (pictured), who has been head of Britain’s biggest police force since September, said the bureaucracy surrounding the removal of officers is posing a ‘challenge’ to his force

He said: ‘We can’t deal with a workforce where such a big proportion are not properly deployable.

‘Many of these people, they can’t work shifts, or they can’t work many hours in a day, or they can only have limited contact with the public, maybe because of anxiety-related issues.

‘There does come a point that, if you can’t be match fit to be a police officer, then it’s challenging for us in that it’s a large number of people we can’t properly deploy.’

This comes after a report by Baroness Louise Casey in November last year criticised the Met’s misconduct procedures and said that hundreds of the force’s officers should have been sacked.