Met Police officer called colleague 'p*key street drinker'

The Asian officer that Police Sergeant Elisha Hill made the comment to initially heard it as “I bet you were like a p*ki street drinker”. 

The incident occurred on October 12, 2022, when PS Hill’s colleague told her that his family used to have an off-licence and people would sit outside drinking. 

At a misconduct hearing PS Hill denied using the term “p*ki” and instead used the word “p*key”. 

She explained that “p*key” was a common phrase within her childhood friend group used to refer to street drinkers. 

The misconduct panel were told: “She stated that as a child, she was unaware that the term p*key is associated with and is offensive to members of the traveller community. 

“She had stopped using it when she was younger and knew it was inappropriate. When she used the phrase p*key street drinker she had not meant it to have racial overtones but had immediately realised it was inappropriate.” 

Another colleague said that PS Hill looked immediately shocked after she used the word. 

PS Hill said this is not usually the type of language she would use and immediately apologised to everyone in the conversation. 

She added that she is 100% sure she used the word “p*key” rather than “p*ki”, but that because she is from south London the way she pronounces words is not always correct and can be misheard. 

A misconduct report stated: “While using the word was influenced by her background, was out of character, was not a sustained volley of abuse and where she had admitted and continued to admit that the word was inappropriate, the officer was an experienced police sergeant, who had been trained in relation to equality and diversity issues. 

“As she acknowledged in her evidence, the word p*key is offensive and is equally as offensive to a different group of people, namely those from the gypsy and traveller community.” 

The panel concluded that PS Hill should be issued a two-year written warning.