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Deputy chief constable Rachel Swann said she came off social media for several weeks after “sexist and homophobic” online comments
A senior police officer has said “sexist and homophobic” abuse sparked by her hairstyle led her to leave social media.
Deputy chief constable Rachel Swann made several media appearances as she led efforts to evacuate residents of Whaley Bridge earlier this year.
Some viewers then took to Twitter to mock the officer.
Ms Swann, of Derbyshire Police, said she was shocked her “mere existence could cause such a depth of feeling”.
About 1,500 people were evacuated from Whaley Bridge when a dam wall at the nearby Toddbrook Reservoir dam was damaged in August.
Ms Swann, the senior officer in the operation, noticed comments about her on social media after she appeared before cameras at a press conference.
‘Really hurt’
“Yes, I am a woman. Yes, I might have a slightly different hairstyle. Yes, I am quite small,” she said.
“The bit that astounded me was I could not believe that my mere existence could cause such a depth of feeling.”
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Toddbrook Reservoir was at risk of flooding Whaley Bridge when part of the dam collapsed
She told BBC Radio Derby: “I got tired by that point, and I started seeing [abuse] coming through on my Twitter feed, so I thought ‘Do you know what? I’m just going to have to turn off notifications’.”
But some of the comments leaked through.
“I can take a bit of banter but then it became sexist and homophobic, and really, really insulting.
“The bit that really hurt was when people said I had no standards and I was letting policing down,” she said.
Some criticised her standard issue police uniform.
“They were saying, ‘She’s not wearing a hat’. Often we would get advised not to wear hats – you can see our eyes, so you can gain trust.”
One comment said: “Is that what a senior police officer looks likely [sic] these days??”
But others – including the county’s police and crime commissioner – jumped to her defence.
Ms Swann said it reached its nadir when a press agency “wanted to run a story on my hair” and so she took a break from Twitter.
Although the comments had upset her she believed “social media is no place to try and respond to that”, and she wanted to concentrate on getting people back to their homes.
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PA Media
Messages on social media became “sexist and homophobic”, Ms Swann said
But Ms Swann said she hoped her appearance in the national media showed the growing diversity in the police force – and she has returned to Twitter.
“In a funny sort of way I made my stand without meaning to. If some good comes out of that that’s fine, it doesn’t mean that it didn’t hurt, it doesn’t mean that it didn’t upset me,” she said.
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