Former PSNI chief superintendent Emma Bond has been awarded more than £31,000 in compensation as she won a sex discrimination case against the service.
Ms Bond had been the first female police commander in Derry.
She became embroiled in a row after informing her superiors that dozens of officers did not report for duty in the district over a two-week period in April 2020, while still getting paid.
They believed they were allowed to be on stand-by from home.
Disciplinary notices against the officers were halted by then-chief constable Simon Byrne following legal advice.
Ms Bond confronted the officers about the matter and later became the target for complaints, and a disciplinary notice was made against her before being withdrawn.
She was later transferred to a role in the police training college before leaving the service in February 2022 following a 23-year career.
Ms Bond, who was made an MBE for service to policing in 2019, is now an assistant chief constable with Police Scotland.
She had taken an employment tribunal against the PSNI, arguing she was discriminated against by the service because she is a woman and as a result was removed from her command position in Derry.
The Industrial Tribunal found that Ms Bond’s claim of sex discrimination is “well founded”.
In addition, it found her claim of having been subjected to detriment on the ground that she had made protected disclosures was also well founded.
The tribunal said it is satisfied, on the balance of probabilities, that Ms Bond was treated less favourably than a “hypothetical comparator” in relation to complaints being made against her.
The tribunal also said it had evidence before it of misogyny and disrespect from within the lower ranks in the form of the WhatsApp messages.
PSNI Chief Operating Officer Pamela McCreedy, said: “The Police Service of Northern Ireland will take time to fully consider the written judgment.
“It would, therefore, be inappropriate to comment further at this time.”