By Andy McCue, 21 February 2006 12:25
NEWS
Police officers and staff at Merseyside Police have been caught sending "grossly offensive" racist, homophobic and pornographic images over the force's email system.
The images were discovered following an investigation by the force's Professional Standards Department last March, during which almost one million staff emails were audited. The inquiry was launched by Merseyside chief constable Bernard Hogan-Howe after an inappropriate image was forwarded by a member of staff to a friend in another organisation.
The investigation audited every email attachment on the force's IT system and found 90 per cent to be appropriate and directly linked to police business. But a small number of the remaining 10 per cent of email attachments were deemed to be "grossly offensive, homophobic or racist", according to Merseyside Police.
According to reports, the images included a black woman with a gorilla's head superimposed on her entitled "Miss Africa" and a decapitated black man's head on a spike with the message "Don't run from the police".
More than 500 police officers and staff were investigated with four police officers and three support staff receiving punishments ranging from written warnings to fines, the highest of which was £360 - or around three days' pay. Most of the others received "letters of advice" from senior police officers.
Merseyside Police said all inappropriate material has now been removed from the force's systems and more effective firewalls and auditing procedures have been put in place.
A statement issued by the force said: "We have new policies in place to prevent this kind of behaviour in the future, and all staff are now aware that anyone breaching the email policy will face the severest of penalties."
Comments
There are 3 comments. Join the discussion
1. anonymous
Appalling, of course, though not surprising.
But from an IT perspective, how was it picked up? The story says an email was sent from a copper to a friend in another organisation. Did the 'friend' report it? Did the other organisation's incoming email checks automatically pick it up? Do we know?
Could Merseyside Police be using software to monitor emails and automatically detect it themselves, or would it be indistinguishable from genuine police business? I A head on a spike could be a legit murder enquiry. But maybe the gorilla's head would be unusual.
2. anonymous
Does driving things underground like this serve a purpose?
Does it change the basic character of people?
or - is it just another branch of political correctness?
3. Mark SPLINTER
yeah let's all get an ID card so they can do this more efficiently