I am still firmly of the opinion that anyone should be free to say / send even the most vile of things to friends as part of a private conversation, not intended by them for public consumption. The only exception should be where the messages are in furtherance to a criminal offence. But the messages themselves should never of themselves be considered criminal. I appreciate that two officers were convicted of sending grossly offensive messages but none of the recipients considered them such. And that is the main point. So long as the officers act professionally and compassionately in the course of their duties, then so what if they say things in private that some might find distasteful? The way things are going, everyone in public life should have it so anyone can remotely access history of all their e-mail and text chatter, just to ensure they are toeing the line. I wonder everyday how much worse things can get. I remember the church pastor in NI who was prosecuted cos he said that Islam was spawned in hell. As someone who believes the bible, he will consider everything against the bible to be demonic in origin. And staying on a Northern Ireland theme, I see a politician was criticised for saying his political opponents were moaning and screaming like little girls. Vile misogyny apparently!

Good job they cannot read peoples minds or thousands would be gone. Messages between private people should not be subject to investigation however nasty they are, people are entitled to say what they want in private.

WhatsApp is still advertising itself as a safe place to have conversations that can not be monitored!! Not if one of your groups phone falls into the hands of the PSD or IOPC then you and everyone in the group are in the brown sticky smelly stuff if you have posted anything that falls foul of the current woke morality thought police standards. Even worse if you have not run to the gaffers office screaming "please sir see what those horrid people have posted today" The modern eqviliant of having a few beers after a long hard week and blowing off steam is just too dangerous

What I find distasteful when having a private conversation some 'woke' person overhears this "private" conversation and takes offence. No matter where you are you have to be very careful. I am not talking about extreme views.

Whats a "Dismissal Notice" is that the same as being sacked without notice. I've never heard of one before!