Three white police officers win discrimination claim after being looked over for promotion because of race

The tribunal was told that a superintendent at the force was requested to improve diversity by appointing an “Asian” sergeant to the rank of Detective Inspector.

However, there were warnings about the legal risks of not holding a competitive promotion process.

Turner-Robson, Horton and Bishop had been working with Thames Valley Police for between 19 and 26 years but were later blocked from applying.

DI Turner-Robson expressed an interest in the role after being made aware of plans to appoint a detective inspector to the force’s “priority crime team” at Aylesbury in August 2022.

Superintendent Emma Baillie made the decision to move Sergeant Sidhu, whose forename was not provided, into the role the following month.

She did not seemingly see it necessary to adopt any competitive process and did not advertise the vacancy to staff, the tribunal was told.

The sergeant had not even been promoted to inspector at the time she was made detective inspector, leaving deputy chief constable Jason Hogg and Superintendent Baillie facing accusations of “jumping the gun”.

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Hogg, an experienced officer who joined Cleveland Police in 1995, was later promoted to Thames Valley Police Chief Constable in April 2023.

The Superintendent had been told to “make it happen” by the Deputy Chief Constable and “took the decision without thinking it through”, the tribunal said.

Baillie later tried to “retrospectively justify” the decision by saying the appointment came under a “BAME Progression Program which clearly did not exist at the time”.

“Superintendent Baillie and no doubt the deputy chief constable had been warned of the risk of operating such a policy,” the tribunal said.

Employment Judge Robin Postle concluded: “The Superintendent made a decision to move Police Sergeant Sidhu into the detective inspector role without any competitive assessment process taking place.

“It went beyond mere encouragement, disadvantaging those officers who did not share Sergeant Sidhu's protected characteristic of race and who were denied the opportunity to apply for the role.

“It was not a proportionate means of achieving a legitimate aim. Clearly, Superintendent Baillie was only focused on 'making it work' rather than carrying out a balancing exercise.

“Superintendent Baillie's decision ... clearly constituted positive discrimination.”