Former police officer made racist comments during training

Former police constable Alex Whitchurch was training as a police officer in Sulhamstead last July when several colleagues reported he made deeply offensive and discriminatory comments.

A misconduct hearing held on March 30 this year, chaired by chief constable Jason Hogg, heard how the student officer made racist comments about Asian, Indian and Jewish people, misogynistic comments about women and other discriminatory comments about people who are disabled and who those live on ‘council estates’.

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All the comments were made during the eight-week training period.

Among the inappropriate comments reported, after a domestic abuse training lesson Whitchurch was heard saying “if you just tell the guy who’s beating the fuck out of his missus that he’s gay he’ll stop immediately” and “if a woman tells me what to do, I will tell her to go back to the kitchen and cook my food.”

Whitchurch went through the police attestation process, in which student officers become constables, at the end of his training on July 18 last year.

During the process, which was led by a magistrate of Asian origin, the former PC was heard saying “I’m surprised she can actually read the attestment with those slots”, while “stretching his eyelids from the corner of his eyes in a mocking gesture”.

Additionally, the student officer called his colleague “a snitch” after they reported an inappropriate comment he had made.

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Whitchurch resigned from the police force just months after formally joining, on September 15, 2025.

He did not attend his misconduct hearing but signed a written document arguing that his comments did not amount to gross misconduct.

The misconduct hearing found his behaviour discredited the police service and amounted to gross misconduct.

A report from the panel said: “Ex PC Whitchurch has repeated his behaviour in the short period of time since his attestation and has had no regard to the impact on his colleagues who I commend for reporting this inappropriate behaviour.

“There are multiple instances of explicitly offensive comments and gestures which are racist, discriminatory and derogatory.”

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It added that the evidence from the multiple officers who reported “Whitchurch’s persistent and inappropriate pattern of behaviour” was “compelling”.

The panel concluded the former officer had breached the policing standards of professional behaviour, including respect and courtesy, equality and diversity, orders and instructions and discreditable conduct.

The sanction imposed was that former PC Whitchurch would have been dismissed if he was still a serving officer, and his name was added to the barred list.