YNOT – More than 400 British police officers and administrative staff have been dismissed or presented with formal warnings after viewing online pornography or other “inappropriate materials” on departmental computers, London’s Daily Mail reported Saturday. The newspaper noted the 439 disciplinary actions for which it obtained records under the Freedom of Information Act may represent only a small portion of the total, as some departments cited data protection rules they said prevented them from providing reportsOf the 47 departments that supplied data, the South Yorkshire force accrued the worst record, with 53 employees receiving reprimands or losing their jobs, according to the Daily Mail. Among the offenses: officers posting “unauthorized” video to commercial websites, sending offensive email and retaining “inappropriate material on the computer system.” Two civilian workers and another officer also were disciplined for performing computerized background checks “without a legitimate policing purpose.”
The Cheshire department racked up nearly as many black marks, with a total of 51. Two of the disciplined were police inspectors accused of “excessive use of the internet.” Another allegedly spent time on a social networking site while on duty. Still another officer became so incensed by the “inappropriate computer usage” accusations leveled against him, he resigned, the Daily Mail reported.
Lancashire appears to have a significant problem with adult content, according to the Daily Mail. There, an inspector was disciplined for at-work viewing of sites that “are or might be considered to be indecent, offensive, pornographic or obscene.” Another inspector was caught “looking at pornographic images via the internet,” and a third received a formal warning for viewing “inappropriate” images.
“I am surprised at these figures,” Police Federation Vice Chairman Simon Reed told the paper. “I was aware of some officers accessing inappropriate sites on some occasions, but not to this extent. Perhaps forces should be doing more to explain what IT policies and procedures staff are expected to follow.”
A taxpayer advocate said what seems like an epidemic of unapproved behavior among law enforcement personnel is baffling and disappointing.
“You would have hoped that the police, of all people, would have good enough computer security to prevent employees viewing illicit sites,” TaxPayers’ Alliance chief executive Matthew Elliott told the Daily Mail.
In mid-December, the Independent Police Complaints Commission announced an investigation into allegations a Wiltshire officer maintained a collection of “indecent” sexual images on his personal computer and sent inappropriate text messages. The officer was arrested Dec. 15. Just five days earlier, a Cricklade senior police official apparently committed suicide after his arrest on similar indecency charges.
