On 3 August 2011 five officers from the Merseyside Matrix team, a high-profile specialist team dealing with gun crime and gangs, were dismissed without notice by Merseyside Police Force following their unprofessional and improper behaviour during a search.

The officers, along with their supervising sergeant (who was dismissed following a fast-track misconduct procedure earlier in the year), formed a six-person search team conducting a search of a residential property. The owners were not present and during the search the officers took photographs of themselves on their phones posing with objects from the house such as a box of Frosties and cleaning products.

The case attracted a lot of publicity for the force since the Matrix team is a flagship unit undertaking vital work tackling gang crime in Liverpool. However, after a 3-day hearing, the outcome was unequivocal. The panel made it explicitly clear that such disrespectful and unprofessional behaviour would not be tolerated by Merseyside Police. The case should send a powerful message to officers and the public at large that inappropriate behaviour by police officers will not go unpunished.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-merseyside-14400790

http://news.sky.com/home/uk-news/article/16043662

Kate Cornell, presenting officer on behalf of Merseyside Police, was commended by the panel on her presentation of the case. She practices all aspects of Police Law and has a wide experience of misconduct proceedings.