A California police officer was fired following an investigation into "disgusting text messages that demonstrated racial bias," San Jose Chief of Police Anthony Mata said in a statement.
Former officer Mark McNamara had been with the San Jose Police Department for six years and was involved in an officer-involved shooting in March 2022.
One of the text messages McNamara sent said "I hate Black people," according to a police report. He also used variations of the N-word multiple times, and other derogatory terms. McNamara is White.
The text messages were discovered following an unrelated criminal investigation into the officer. Mata said the messages were found because of systems put in place a year ago.
"There is zero tolerance for even a single expression of racial bias at the San Jose Police Department. The messages were found due to the expansion of our Internal Affairs Unit's efforts to thoroughly investigate all questionable conduct and is why we have made investments in a new early warning system," Mata said in a press release.
"I made it clear last year when I expanded our investigation systems that we would be proactive and transparent in identifying patterns of policy violations. This is the promised accountability resulting from that work," he said.
The investigation also found that a current employee was on the receiving end of some of those messages, and engaged in "concerning dialogue" with McNamara. That employee has been placed on administrative leave pending an internal investigation.
