On October 23, 2025, the Metropolitan Police found itself at the center of yet another scandal, this time involving an officer stationed at Charing Cross police station who was dismissed after being secretly filmed making what have been described as "floridly racist" remarks and openly glorifying the use of inappropriate force. The damning footage, collected by a BBC Panorama undercover investigation, has rocked the central London police station, raising new questions about the culture within one of the UK’s most high-profile law enforcement agencies.
The investigation focused on Pc Philip Neilson, who was caught on camera suggesting that an immigrant who had overstayed his visa should be shot. According to the BBC, while off-duty and drinking at a pub, Neilson was recorded saying, "either put a bullet through his head or deport him." The footage also captured him referring to Algerians and Somalians as "scum" and making references to what he described as an "invasion" of the UK by migrants. These statements, delivered in an apparently casual and jovial manner, were presented during a disciplinary hearing in south London, where Neilson faced a series of grave allegations.
The hearing, chaired by Commander Jason Prins, found that Pc Neilson had breached multiple standards of professional behavior, including authority, respect and courtesy, discreditable conduct, and equality and diversity. Commander Prins was unequivocal in his assessment, stating, "It was or must have been obvious to him that the comments made were abhorrent. The conduct of the officer is a disgrace." Neilson was dismissed from the force without notice, a decision that underscored the severity of his actions and the impact they had on public trust in the police.
The BBC Panorama documentary did not merely focus on racist language. The undercover reporter, Rory Bibb, managed to record a litany of troubling behaviors among officers at Charing Cross. The footage captured Neilson, while off-duty and under the influence of alcohol—he later admitted to having had eight or nine pints of Guinness—glorifying the use of excessive force. He described applying pressure points to a juvenile detainee, referred to as Mr X, during transport to custody, claiming he alternated between the detainee’s legs every 20 seconds "because you become immune to it." Neilson later denied that he had actually used inappropriate force, asserting that his comments were a "misguided attempt at bravado," and that he had been assaulted by the detainee. Nonetheless, as James Berry KC, representing the appropriate authority, put it, "He was showing off with an… exaggerated story about the use of force. He was glorifying the use of inappropriate force on a restrained detainee, whether or not the force was in fact used."
Perhaps most disturbing was the tone of the conversations captured on film. Berry noted that Neilson was "laughing and smirking throughout," which only added to the sense that such behavior was normalized among some officers. The investigation also uncovered officers making sexualized comments about women, dismissing the seriousness of a rape complaint, making anti-Muslim remarks, and boasting about the use of excessive force. In another exchange, PC Martin Borg was filmed bragging about a colleague stamping on a detainee’s leg, laughing at the suspect’s screams, and even discussing the possibility of falsifying a witness statement related to the incident.
When confronted at the hearing, Neilson accepted that his remarks were inappropriate, but he tried to downplay their significance, attributing them to intoxication and insisting that they amounted to misconduct rather than gross misconduct. His legal representative, Chris Brinsley, described the case as "extraordinary," given that "the police have been infiltrated by an undercover journalist." Neilson himself suggested that the undercover reporting may have breached his human rights, claiming, "I do… he was the one bringing up the conversations." When asked if he considered himself racist, Neilson replied, "I’m not." Yet the evidence presented left little doubt in the minds of the disciplinary panel.
This is not the first time Charing Cross police station has been embroiled in controversy. In 2022, the station was at the heart of a major scandal after the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) revealed that officers had exchanged shocking messages between 2016 and 2018. Those messages included jokes about rape and domestic abuse, as well as racist comments, painting a deeply troubling picture of the internal culture at the station. The recurrence of such incidents has intensified calls for sweeping reforms within the Metropolitan Police, with critics arguing that the force has failed to root out toxic attitudes and behaviors among its ranks.
For many observers, the revelations from the BBC Panorama investigation are both shocking and depressingly familiar. The footage suggests that, despite previous scandals and public commitments to change, deeply ingrained problems persist within sections of the Metropolitan Police. The fact that Neilson’s comments—and those of other officers—were made so openly and with apparent pride has prompted a wave of public outrage and renewed scrutiny of police oversight mechanisms.
Community leaders and advocacy groups have responded with alarm to the latest scandal. Many have pointed out that the repeated exposure of racist and abusive conduct by police officers undermines public confidence in law enforcement and raises serious concerns about the treatment of minorities and vulnerable individuals. The Metropolitan Police, for its part, has emphasized that it takes such matters seriously—Commander Prins’s swift dismissal of Neilson is being held up as evidence of a zero-tolerance approach to gross misconduct. Yet critics argue that disciplinary actions after the fact are not enough, and that more proactive measures are needed to prevent such behavior in the first place.
The BBC’s investigation also raises uncomfortable questions about the broader culture within the police force. The normalization of racist, sexist, and violent language among some officers, as revealed in the undercover footage, suggests that the problems go beyond a few "bad apples." Instead, they point to systemic issues that require comprehensive and sustained efforts to address. Calls for better training, stronger leadership, and more robust accountability mechanisms have grown louder in the wake of the scandal, with many insisting that only a fundamental shift in culture will restore public trust.
As the Metropolitan Police grapples with the fallout from the Panorama exposé, attention is turning to what comes next. Will this latest incident prompt meaningful change, or will it be remembered as just another entry in a long list of police misconduct scandals? For now, the dismissal of Pc Philip Neilson serves as a stark reminder of the challenges facing law enforcement in the UK—and of the urgent need for transparency, accountability, and reform.
