After appearing on the Nigerian version of Big Brother without permission, a UK police officer received a final written warning.
PC Khafilat Kareem was a Metropolitan Police officer when she applied to be on the popular reality TV show in 2019.
She won a spot in the Big Brother Naija house in Lagos and entered in June of the same year, lasting 77 days before being evicted.
Although Khafilat was granted unpaid leave, she was denied permission to appear in the series because Chief Superintendent Jason Gwillim felt it would ‘discredit the Met Police’.
Since then, a misconduct hearing has issued a final warning to the PC, who is attached to the Transformation Directorate, for defying bosses’ orders.
The misconduct panel at the Empress Building in west London decided that Khafilat had violated professional standards of conduct in the areas of ‘orders and instructions’ and ‘discreditable conduct.’
“Permission was refused for PC Kareem to appear on the Nigerian version of Big Brother as it was felt it was not in the best interests of either her or the Metropolitan Police Service to take part,” Detective Chief Superintendent Andy Day, Transformation Directorate, said in a statement released yesterday (29 April).
“Despite her refusal, she appeared on the show.”
“A thorough investigation was conducted by the Met’s Directorate of Professional Standards, which concluded that PC Kareem should face gross misconduct charges.
“Being a police officer entails adhering to professional behavior standards. PC Kareem’s behavior clearly fell far short of expectations, and she has been issued a final written warning.”
According to the Met Police, Khafilat brought her work laptop to the Big Brother house, which she surrendered to the show’s producers before entering.
The panel determined that this was a “breach of professional standards proven to the level of misconduct.”
Chief Superintendent Gwillim previously explained why he decided not to allow the officer to appear on the show.
“According to the BBC, “the risk I felt I was considering was that with PC Kareem, who was a police officer, there would be an expectation for her to act if something unlawful happened – arguments, tension, or fighting.”
“I believe she would feel pressure to intervene, and if she did not, would the officer’s inaction bring the service [Met Police] into disrepute?
“People in the spotlight face a great deal of pressure because they want to win. I discovered that the more outrageous people are, the more likely they are to win.
“There was a significant risk of the force being brought into disrepute, in my opinion.”
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