Police force entitled to rely on officers’ WhatsApp messages to bring misconduct proceedings

In BC and ors v Chief Constable of the Police Service of Scotland and ors, the Inner House of the Court of Session has upheld the Outer House’s decision that the Police Service of Scotland was entitled to use WhatsApp group chat messages discovered on an officer’s phone during the course of a criminal investigation, but not used in that investigation, as a legal basis for bringing separate misconduct proceedings against officers who were members of the chat group. The Court held that the officers in the group could have had no reasonable expectation of privacy in relation to the messages, taking into account the inappropriate nature of the messages and the fact that the officers were under an obligation to behave in accordance with professional standards by acting with honesty and integrity and challenging and reporting improper conduct.