Police officer forced to pick up rubbish after being caught littering | UK News

A police officer caught littering from his patrol car has been told to ‘reflect’ on his thoughtless actions- and given a mark on his permanent record.

The offending officer, based at Witney police station, was captured on CCTV opening the passenger door of his car and discarding bread ends onto a grass verge.

But the furious homeowner who captured the footage then stepped outside to confront him, in a video he filmed and posted to TikTok, demanded that the fresh-faced officer pick up his litter and dispose of it properly – noting that a civilian would likely get an on-the-spot fine.

Yet despite being caught red-handed on CCTV, the policeman instead tried to deny throwing any litter at all.

Thames Valley Police later said the officer has been ‘given a chance to reflect on their actions and learn from them’.

The viral video, filmed on Tuesday morning, begins with the resident asking for the officer’s badge number and police station – which he confirms as being Witney, ten miles west of Oxford.

The man filming then asks the officer: ‘Have you got an excuse why you pulled up outside my house and threw rubbish out of your car? Is there a reason for that?’

The officer denies littering, saying: ‘No, I haven’t thrown any rubbish. That’s actually just sandwich crusts.’

‘Oh right,’ the man filming replies, pointing his camera at a pair of sandwich crusts discarded on the grass verge. 

He adds: ‘So you think it’s okay to pull up outside somebody else’s house and chuck your lunch or breakfast outside my house? That’s acceptable, is it?

‘If I’d done that in front of a police officer, right, or if a litter enforcement officer, right, I’d get nicked, wouldn’t I? Course I would. You’ve got no respect, have you?’

The officer then replies: ‘I can fully understand where you’re coming from and I appreciate that maybe it didn’t look so bad, and I’ll fully take that on board.

‘I will keep that in mind for the future.’

The person filming then retorts: ‘Pick the f****** crust up and take it with you… I ain’t moving until you f****** do it.

‘It’s my house, and you just discard your food on the side of the road, right, without any thought.’

The officer’s colleague then interrupts to say that the roadside doesn’t constitute part of the property of the person filming.

But the cameraman fires back and says: ‘It doesn’t matter, it doesn’t – oh so it’s okay, is it? It’s public property, so that makes it even worse, doesn’t it?

‘I’ll be making a complaint… about him. Who do you think you are? Do you think the police are so above the little man that you can get away with that?’

As the officer who dropped the crusts tries to say he’ll pick up the rubbish, the resident adds: ‘Pick it up. Pick it up. Pick it up then.’

When the policeman asks him to stop shouting, he says: ‘I’ll shout at what I want – there’s no law against it, is there?’

The cameraman then steps back on to his driveway and shouts: ‘Alright. Now pick the f****** thing up. Now I’m on private property. Pick it up.

‘How dare you come to somebody’s house and discard your food, in front of their house, even whether it’s a public property or not. Who the hell do you think you are? Pick it up. Now.’

The officer says: ‘I will do. Will you please stop shouting at me like that? I don’t think that’s quite respectful.’

‘I don’t think it’s respectful you discard your food outside my house,’ the homeowner fires back. ‘Pick it up.’

‘I’m going to, if you leave me alone. Okay?’ the officer says, before picking up the crusts.

The video ends with the cameraman saying: ‘Move along. You’re dismissed. Go away. Don’t chuck food outside your car again.’

Later footage shows a female officer approaching the man at his home, informing him that the policeman had been ordered to undergo ‘reflective practice’, which will sit on his record.

The female officer tells the man: ‘We have spoken to the officer and said this isn’t correct (and that) you need to reflect on your actions.

‘He has accepted that it is wrong and he has apologised – not to you, but this is why we’re here. We’ve dealt with it this evening. 

‘This reflective practice will go onto his record, that that’s what’s happened, so that’s on his record, and we’re here to say: “Apologies, that shouldn’t have happened.”‘

Thames Valley Police later said it had been made aware of the video and has flagged it to senior officers and its professional standards department.

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