Police officers at Norfolk Constabulary were recorded on a confiscated body camera discussing whether they would have sex with suspects and joking about dragging a protester 'down the stairs'. The audio was captured on the bodycam of Gemma Barnes, 36, after she was arrested at Bethel Street Police Station in Norwich on January 14, 2023. Officers did not realise the camera was still recording, and it captured their conversations for the next four hours.
Officers discuss having sex with suspects
In the footage, police men and women can be heard making sex jokes. Discussing a female suspect, one woman officer asks others: 'do you think [name] is hot or not?' A male officer asks colleagues 'I mean, would you?' in an apparent reference to whether they would have sex with the individual. Another male officer says: 'I'm trying to work out if they're fit or not.'
The subject of this discussion, who is not named, told Metro: 'I am completely shocked that people we are paying to keep our streets safe are using their time to discuss whether they would have sex with suspects or not. I already have little faith in the law, now I already have even less faith. They really should be even more careful.'
Later in the recording, when a male officer is apparently accessing a file related to Gemma Barnes, he is heard making a double entendre about being 'in Gemma Barnes'. Other officers can be heard making mocking vomiting sounds.
Police laugh about suspect who was pushed into road
The footage came to light after Gemma and other protestors delivered a petition calling for a man to be charged with killing a pigeon. The group were 'pushed out' of the station, leading to her arrest after she challenged an officer she said pushed her into a busy road. Video shows Gemma apparently being shoved and falling back into the street.
The officers being recorded appear to enjoy watching back footage of the altercation. One policewoman says she is 'just warming myself up for a nice treat' when accessing the footage. Discussing the police bodycam video, one officer says: 'I'll be at home and you'll be in custody, bitch.' There then appears to be laughs as they watch an officer 'push' Gemma into the road and joke about how easily she'd 'gone down'. 'She went down like Christiano Ronaldo,' one said.
A male officer adds: 'I like how you're so committed, you fucking send Gemma Barnes flying and then you're like, "right, next protester".' Another officer says: 'When I saw her fly on the floor, I sort of closed my eyes and drove off.' A copper replies: 'Over her?' A policeman can be heard saying 'in which case it was a missed opportunity'. Describing his treatment of Gemma, one calls it a 'reverse old-school custody', to which a male officer responds: 'It was, dragging her down the stairs, come on bitch'.
Provocative language appears on numerous occasions. A male officer refers to someone as a 'silly bitch'. A female officer also says 'I hate Gemma Barnes'.
'Creative' police statements
At least one officer appears to make concerning comments about potentially exaggerating written police statements over the altercation with protestors. An officer tells a colleague he better 'spin-the-wheel out' because he thinks 'it's gunna be one of them sort of statements'. In a separate conversation, an officer says: 'It's fine, I've just got to write a creative statement.'
Gemma, who got the camera back 11 months later, told Metro she never expected to find such damning material. The animal rights activist said: 'I was shocked but not surprised. When I played it on my laptop, I thought it had been wiped. I know these are the sort of conversations they have. I was shocked and I was angry and I was disgusted, but I wasn't surprised.' She added: 'The whole thing is deplorable, the police are supposed to be impartial.'
A charge of public nuisance against Gemma was later dropped and she was acquitted at Norfolk Magistrates' Court for a Section 5 public order offence. Gemma is now suing Norfolk Constabulary for wrongful arrest, malicious prosecution, assault and battery, and trespass to goods.
A Norfolk Constabulary spokesperson said they had reviewed the footage and considered 17 aspects of a single complaint. They said: 'Following that investigation, a number of matters were addressed through the appropriate misconduct processes. We also reviewed arrest and stop and search records for the officers involved and found no wider evidence of discriminatory behaviour. This investigation is currently subject to a complainant's right to review with the Independent Office for Police Conduct. Part of the footage currently being circulated on social media has not previously been provided to the Constabulary in its current format and we are therefore further reviewing this. As a matter of fairness, we will not comment further on this while that assessment is ongoing. We know that some of the content currently being shared will undermine public confidence in policing. People rightly expect high standards from police officers and staff, and some of the content being circulated falls short of what the public would expect to hear.'
