Met the police officer who suggested a positive drug test cocaine was fired because of the medication she was taking.
On November 17 last year, Deborah Chapman “reasonably” passed a drug test at her workplace, which gave a positive result for cocaine.
The misconduct commission heard the officer claimed the test was flawed and that the positive result could have been caused by medication she was taking.
However, a medical examiner told the misconduct hearing that “PC Chapman’s medication would not have caused the positive test result for cocaine.”
It was heard that the reported level of benzoylecganine – a substance produced when the body metabolizes cocaine – “was 8 times the cut-off level that indicates a positive test result”.
In a ruling published on Friday, assistant chair Barbara Gray said: “However, it is clear that PC Chapman had the controlled drug cocaine in her system on 17 November 2022.
“There is no plausible explanation for this other than PC Chapman knowingly taking cocaine.
“It is also important that this was a ‘substantiated’ drug test – that is, there was evidence to suggest that PC Chapman had taken drugs which led to her being tested.”
She supported the finding of gross misconduct, saying the officer could not have been fit for duty because of the presence of the drug in her blood.
“She could only have obtained the cocaine illegally, opening herself up to blackmail,” added Assistant Commissioner Gray.
PC Chapman, who was attached to the Met Police’s task force, was dismissed without notice.
https://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/met-police-misconduct-panel-deborah-chapman-b1085347.html