To think my police complaint wasn't kept confidential?

[sowsomeseeds]

Name changed as v v outing.
A few months back I made a complaint against a Police Officer
PC was a friend of mine
They were making comments which made fun of people with disabilities on social media and I couldn’t do with the drama of confronting them directly.
Basically just jokes and memes etc on their social media.
Rightly or wrongly I filled in an online crime report form anonymously, with dates things had happened, which social media platforms etc.
I didn’t think they should be in a position of authority if they were happy to belittle the most vulnerable members of society.
Within 3 weeks the PC and 3 of their closest friends (who were mutual friends) have all deleted and blocked me on social media and refuse to talk to me.
Do you think that my details were given from the complaint (IP address maybe?) or could they tell it was me from my mobile phone.
I 100% made the complaint anonymously.
Have they just guessed or presumed it was me?
I’m worried that my details have been given even though I reported it anonymously and asked to stay anonymous and it is going to cause repercussions for me.

As others have already said, it's most likely that those memes were sent to only a very small group of say 10 people he thought of as friends, at which point it would be if anything hard not to know it was OP. Telling a (real) friend "oh crap, I got reported for X" is not sharing information about crimes, it's sharing information about themselves.

If the officer wasn't suspended then it's likely the memes weren't actually a hate crime, however distasteful they were, which we can't guess without seeing them. And really OP, please don't make up any more of your own, that doesn't help anything and I've no idea why you think that's a good idea on a public forum. If it were me, then I'd report a friend only if it was related to a specific individual who could be harmed or actual hate speech, but otherwise just say in person "hi, that's inappropriate because...".

Quite why OP thinks people would want to remain friends with someone who complains to a "friend's" workplace rather than talking with them is only as weird as that she wants to be friends with people who she judges as committing hate crimes on a daily basis. It baffles me and I just can't get my head around it, can anyone explain that bit?

If you feel strongly about something, have the courage of your convictions and own it. Don't anonymously risk a friends job (whether that is right or not) because you wanted to avoid challenging them directly.

Exactly. This is virtue-signalling at its finest.

Just realised read op and see she did add her phone number. Still don't think the PSD would have passed that on to the subject of the complaint.

I had someone complain that the police passed on info to me that they shouldn't have (I was a victim of crime and no they didn't pass the info on). I found it legitimately through open source material but the individual was absolutely convinced that the police had told me and would not deviate from that view.

I still think they've just tightened up and guessed. I have s friend that's had tighten up her social media now she's getting well known in her profession. It's very common to do so particularly if they've had words of advice from their superior.

If the officer wasn't suspended then it's likely the memes weren't actually a hate crime, however distasteful they were, which we can't guess without seeing them. And really OP, please don't make up any more of your own, that doesn't help anything and I've no idea why you think that's a good idea on a public forum. If it were me, then I'd report a friend only if it was related to a specific individual who could be harmed or actual hate speech, but otherwise just say in person "hi, that's inappropriate because...".
You've put it better than me.

Ha - when sexist comments are made in the workplace, the OP is always urged to report, report, report - zero tolerance and all that. But not for disabling comments, it would seem

For the record I didn’t put my phone number anywhere.
I don’t know where people have got this from.
I filled in an online form on my mobile phone.
I’ve just looked at the form I filled in and it’s titled “report something to us” so it’s not saying that it’s a crime report form.
And I’d love to know how else I could have reported this person anonymously.
I’m sure they don’t have forms for “report a police officers misconduct”
I don’t want this person sacked, but I did not feel comfortable confronting them about this.
I cannot put exact status’ they wrote, but the ones I put on here are very close to the exact ones, just a couple of things changed.
Regardless of whether this is a crime or not, they should not be talking about members of the public in this way and being derogatory about some of the most vulnerable members of society stating they are “putting it on” and “not disabled when they’re running from us”
Maybe I should have confronted them directly, but how many people would confront someone twice their size, who throws their weight around. In different circumstances I probably would have spoken to them first.
Anyway what’s done is done, and I purely wanted to know if it was likely I had been traced through an IP address and the PC knew for definite that it was me.

Aridane
Disabilist comments in the workplace should be totally reported as a professional concern.

The OP has seem some memes she doesnt like, not challenged their friend, not raised a professional concern and has filed it as a crime because she doesnt think the person should have their job.

Cross posted with the OP update.
It looks like there's a difference between the first post and update.
Rightly or wrongly I filled in an online crime report

If it's a general reporting a concern form then my feelings change a bit.

I would still question though why someone would be friends with someone who has views you consider awful, throws their weight around, not sure twice the size is relevant.
Seems a bit like trying for the angle of 'I was helpless to tell a friend I didn't like their memes because they're so big and scary'. If they're so awful why socialise with them and have them on Facebook?

Oh for goodness sake.
How many times have I said that I just think that the pc should be monitored.
I’ve never said I want them sacked.
I’ve never said it’s a crime, I filled in an online report, as how else would I have reported it?
The form is titled “need to report something?” hence could probably be used for licensing issues, noise problems, parking issues, police officers not behaving the way they should.

It was just an online form. I just called it a crime report as it was on a police constabularies website.
Think it was more a general report anything form.
It was the only online way you can report anything via their website.

I wasn’t close friends with them, I didn’t socialise with them personally. I’ve found a lot of their comments in the past have crossed a line, but I’ve just nodded and walked away in a social environment.
I’ve bumped into this person for 5 years at social events.
They added me to Facebook a long time ago and I’ve unfollowed them as I didn’t want to see their posts.
I don’t want to cause a war and drama within our social circle and my children’s school life.
I just want this person monitored.

If you unfollow someone on FB they can’t see you’ve unfollowed them so that couldn’t have given the game away.

If you didn’t give any details such as you’re email address or phone number then I think he’s just guessed.

sowsomeseeds
In your first post you said you filled in a crime report form.
That's what people were going off.

You can't complain people have mentioned you reporting a crime when that's what s in the original post.

Like it not there is a difference between reporting a crime and raising a professional concern.

You were also the person to bring up hate crimes, how mocking and joking is a hate crime and expressed that you didn't feel they were up to the job.

People have gone off the posts and replied based on that.

The OP has seem some memes she doesnt like, not challenged their friend, not raised a professional concern and has filed it as a crime because she doesnt think the person should have their job
She's got a right to file a concern and for it to be addressed.
There's a legitimate case that a police officer posting such material really should undergo a radical change of behaviour and thinking. It brings the Police Force into disrepute, even if it's amongst a supposedly private and select group of people. Being 'prejudiced' behind closed doors doesn't make it any less prejudiced.
It is a hate crime? probably not.

So really we're talking that you don't like the way she chose to address it, not that it was addressed at all.
But how would any other member of the general public be expected to raise such a concern? What's your recommended course of action if you see a Police Officer doing something like this? Or a politician? or a teacher?
Is it so wrong to have told their employer?
How do you propose we'll ever stop it if there are next to no consequences?

@Aridane - a sexist, disablist, racist or other inappropriate comment in the workplace of course needs to be called out. I'd be appalled if someone reported a "sexist meme" posted by a friend to their place of work to try to get them in trouble. If I think a meme is sexist in a way that's offensive then I'll call out the "friend" wherever they posted it, or ignore it as letting off steam.

“not disabled when they’re running from us”
Depends what disability is being talked about, if it's a physical disability then I think your ex-friend was letting off steam. They're unlikely to have said that about someone with mental health issues, they're pointing out an absurdity that they've seen. Calling that sort of comment a "hate crime" and reporting it is utterly ridiculous on my opinion. Or are you busy making up more of these for the purpose of the thread?

TornFromTheInside
My issue was that it should have been raised as a professional concern, not (as the OP said their first post by claiming it's a crime and then subsequently mentioning hate crimes).

But now they've said it's not reporting a crime and I've said my feelings change a bit.

People should be careful what they post online. People shouldn't be posting things that bring their organisation into disrepute.

From the thread it seems the person hasn't been suspended, suggesting a limit to what the posts actually contained.

I guess we'll never know what they actually contained - so it's really hard to get a feel for the level of stuff going on.
Clearly, the police officer concerned did get the message to stop. Whether they've actually stopped or not, or whether it's been driving further underground - who knows?

I'm just more surprised by a police officer's stupidity in using social media for their rants / blowing off steam. It's a recipe for disaster.

I don’t know why you were fb friends with this person op if you didn’t like their comments so much, you could have simply unfriended them or blocked them.
I am surprised that if this police persons comments were so disrespectful then no one else made a comment on FB.

Anyway, I digress, it’s obvious you don’t like them and perhaps they don’t like you, hence the blocking. They still like your husband though.

Walk away from your FB and leave this alone. You’ve done what you wanted to achieve, you reported them, so let it go.

Not read the whole thread but just to tell you that the police would not trace you via your IP address for filling out an anonymous report online. We are governed RIPA and have to have good reason to do anything like that (the application process amid a PITA!) and in these circumstances the trace simply wouldn't be authorised. So they wouldn't have had your name to pass on. And if they did, they wouldn't have done.

TornFromTheInside
I agree.
They've clearly been an idiot, regardless of how offensive the content was.

You'd be amazed the stuff people post. I've seen some posts shared that I've thought 'not inappropriate or unprofessional but all it would take is for one person to read it that way or be an easily offended types and you'd be getting a bit of a talking to reminding you about social media'.

Saying that I've also known people get reported because they've posted one of those happy friday memes and that they were ready for the weekend. A friend liked and shared it. A parent who was a friend of the friend saw it, decided it was a reference to an incident regarding their child and reported the person to the school. The teacher had their profile private, only friends could see, their employer wasn't mentioned, there was zero reference to school.
Little miss offended decided that seeing a meme about the weekend was obviously an unprofessional reference.
Teacher was pulled for an informal chat and we were all reminded that people can easily twist and see what they like on social media so be careful.

For the record - hate is not a crime in itself (and nobody's suggesting this officer actually did 'hate' ).

A hate crime has to be a real crime - but one that's motivated by prejudice against specifically protected groups.

If I don't like Irishmen - that's just ignorance, but not a crime
If I smash the window that happens to be owned by an Irishman - it's just a criminal damage crime.
If I smash the window of a man BECAUSE he's Irish, then it's a hate crime.

They put their own job at risk the moment they decided to post offensive twaddle on public social media.

Any consequences are their fault, not the op's.

If their job is at risk it's because they did something they shouldn't. The fact that op brought it to the attention of the relevant people is neither here nor there. Who knows if other people didn't also complain.

It's not the op's responsibility to cover for them or try to protect them from the consequences of their actions.

I would have reported them too. Covering up for police officers like that does a huge disservice to the decent officers and makes their lives harder by undermining confidence and trust in policing.

OP, like another person on this thread I work in police complaints.
Firstly, you did the right thing in reporting it. We take comments like the ones you're referring to very seriously, and we've had people be taken out the job for it. Rightly so.
Secondly, your details will not have been passed on, and from what I can tell you didn't provide them? They will just have guessed.

The detective chief inspector I know absolutely abhors hate crime in particular against people with disabilities. There have been some very upsetting cases locally of harassment and general piss taking of some people who cannot defend themselves and have been driven to awful extremes. Zero tolerance for POs to be taking part publicly in similar behaviour.
Massive well done from me.

They can’t trace you from your IP address, and to be honest it wouldn’t record it on the online report. IT will likely have access to it but it’s unlikely the officer you reported ever would, and would need authorisation from a very senior officer to trace it through the ISP. I would guess they’ve been pulled into the bosses for a grilling and taken a guess, albeit a good one.

It’s never wrong to do the right thing

You did the right thing.