Hertfordshire police officer George Mugridge sacked after sharing bodyworn camera arrest footage

A Hertfordshire police officer has been sacked after he shared bodyworn camera footage of an arrest with his partner, a colleague and a pub customer.

PC George Mugridge was dismissed from Hertfordshire Constabulary without notice following a misconduct hearing on July 21.

Assistant Chief Constable Nicholas Davison, who chaired the hearing, found that Mugridge had “betrayed the public’s trust” and “abused his position”.

On March 17, the officer accessed police systems while off duty and recorded bodyworn footage of an arrest onto his personal mobile phone. He later shared it with a colleague on WhatsApp, with his partner and with an unknown person at the Golden Lion pub in Hoddesdon.

On March 20, the person who was arrested – who was subject to a live criminal investigation – said they were “aware” that Mugridge had shared the footage.

A video of Mugridge sharing the arrest footage and talking about it had been “recorded and shared over social media”.

Mugridge was arrested on March 21 on suspicion of perverting the course of justice and computer misuse offences. He accepted a caution for a computer misuse offence, but denied perverting the course of justice.

He wrote to the Chief Constable and the victim of the Computer Act offence to apologise for his actions.

In a prepared statement he admitted sharing the video with a person at the pub. He said it was “a stupid mistake he deeply regretted”.

The person arrested in the footage said he was worried about “unfairness in the ongoing case against him” and that “he has tried to prevent [his daughter] and his son finding out about its circulation”.

In his report, ACC Davison wrote: “PC Mugridge did not act with integrity; he did not do the right thing.

“He failed to act as a role model and failed to demonstrate professional behaviour in managing his responsibilities to the management of sensitive police information and data.

“He abused his position by downloading the video onto his own phone and then going on to share it with unauthorised persons.

“He misused the trust placed on him as a police officer by the public and in fact the person seen within the clip.

“By sharing the video and committing a 1990 Computer Act offence he has behaved in a way that damages the trust and confidence with the public.

“I determine that this is serious gross misconduct with a high level of harm to the reputation of the police service and the public’s confidence in it, coupled with psychological harm and distress to the victim, who was concerned about the impact on his children and the impact on the live criminal case against him.”

PC Mugridge resigned before the hearing but was still within his notice period when it took place and was therefore treated as a serving officer. He said he could not attend the hearing on “welfare grounds”.

He was dismissed without notice and his name has been added to the policing barred list.