Ricardo Dos Santos

THE WATCHDOG INVESTIGATED ITSELF. SURPRISE: IT WAS INNOCENT. Trisha Napier spent 17 years at the IOPC, the body that is supposed to hold the police accountable. In 2020, she was the lead investigator into the racially discriminatory stop and search of Olympic sprinter Bianca Williams (@BiancaaWills) and her partner Ricardo Dos Santos. They were handcuffed outside their own home, in front of their three-month-old baby, by officers who four of them later found to have lied about smelling cannabis. Napier concluded there was evidence for gross misconduct charges against the officers. Then Cressida Dick went on @LBC and told the nation the officers had done nothing wrong. Days later, IOPC boss Michael Lockwood did something he had never done with Napier before. He requested to see her documents. He then swapped out the senior official overseeing the case. Napier's gross misconduct findings were quietly downgraded to the lower charge of misconduct. She says it was politically motivated. She says her decisions were overturned by managers and her integrity was compromised beyond the point of return. She filed a whistleblowing complaint against her own organisation. The IOPC investigated itself. Found no wrongdoing. Napier resigned and is now taking the IOPC to an employment tribunal after 17 years of service. The officers were eventually sacked in October 2023 after a six-week misconduct panel found they had lied. Then a Police Appeal Tribunal reinstated them in October 2024. Bianca and Ricardo say they will pursue it through the civil courts. And Trisha Napier, the investigator who tried to do the right thing from the start, lost her career for it. Sources: BBC Newsnight / Voice Online Protect @WhistleUK, Trisha Napier Statement, 18 January 2023 Employment Tribunal Judgment, Case 3200852/2022 (Ms P Napier v IOPC) IOPC Statement on Misconduct Hearing Outcome, October 2023 Bindmans, Officers Reinstated on Appeal, October 2024