Mr R Walker v The Chief Constable of Cleveland Constabulary Heard: Remotely by video — 2022

Mr R Walker, a former Cleveland police officer and later Police Inspector, brought claims of associative direct discrimination on grounds of race and disability, direct disability discrimination, victimisation and detriment because of protected disclosures. The hearing was a remote public preliminary hearing before Employment Judge S A Shore on 19-22 April 2022. The respondent's summary determination application on allegations 26-30 was withdrawn and no findings were made on that application.

On the second issue, the tribunal held that Cleveland Police was acting as a police service, not as the claimant's employer, when it carried out the arrest, search, seizure, covert recording and other steps surrounding the safe and file removed from Cleveland PF offices. Applying Tiplady, and accepting that police officers have PACE and common law powers of arrest, detention, search and seizure, the tribunal dismissed allegations 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 13, 22 and 37 for lack of jurisdiction.

On the strike-out and deposit issues, allegation 1 was struck out, as were allegations 20 and 23. Allegations 8, 11, 12, 14, 17, 24 and 25 were found to have little reasonable prospect of success and were made subject to deposits of £200 each, totalling £1,400. The tribunal's reasons included the complaint/defamation email, the return of seized items to the claimant's ex-wife, alleged rumours about petty cash, the claimant's removal as Branch Secretary of the Cleveland PF, the continuation of the gross misconduct investigation, the no-crime issue and the biometric material issue.