100s of UK police probed over social media abuse

Hundreds of police officers and staff members across England and Wales have been investigated for violating social media guidelines, such as posting racist and threatening remarks.

A report by the Press Association revealed that 828 cases of police employees breaching social media rules were probed at 43 forces between 2009 to February this year.

The study also showed that 548 of those probed were police officers, 175 civilian staff and 31 were police community support officers (PCSO).

A majority of cases resulted in some management action, such as written warnings, while nearly one in ten cases, or nine percent, committed such serious breaches that they were either fired, went into retirement or resigned. Around a seventh, or 14 percent, of the probes resulted in no further action.

Among the violations investigated were racist and threatening comments by police employees on sites such as Facebook and Twitter, sent “friend” requests to the victims of crime and uploaded images of colleagues in “compromising positions.”

According to the report, one police officer had posted information about a planned police operation and another employee was accused of being “threatening, bullying and intimidating toward a complainant by sending private messages via Facebook.”

Chief Constable Alex Marshall, the head of the College of Policing which drew up a code of conduct for all officers, commented on the figures saying the police employees who have violated the guidelines “must face appropriate action,” adding, “There is no place in policing for officers who abuse the trust placed in us by the public.”