10 Philly cops on desk duty due to social media probe

10 Philly cops on desk duty due to social media probe
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Ten Philly cops were placed on desk duty after the The Injustice Watch exposed them for their alleged racist, intolerant and offensive Facebook posts. The In Plain View Project from The Injustice Watch found that 328 Philly officers have posted offensive content.   

Police Commissioner Richard Ross is working to combat this situation and said in a statement issued to Inquirer.com that the entire police force will undergo antibias training, in hopes to tackle the behavior. 

In the statement Ross also asked an independent law firm to help evaluate the posts and the comments to see what violates the department’s social media policy, which reads, “Employees are prohibited from using ethnic slurs, profanity, personal insults; material that is harassing, defamatory, fraudulent, or discriminatory, or other content or communications that would not be acceptable in a City workplace under City or agency policy or practice.” It additionally says, “Employees are prohibited from displaying sexually explicit images, cartoons, jokes, messages or other material.” 

Ross noted that employees will now be trained in the department’s social media policies. They are also hoping to develop an internal auditing process to monitor social media posts by officers. 

Ross additionally added that it would respect the officers’ first amendment rights but also made it clear that if the opinions could affect how the officers maintain the public’s trust, the department could act on it. 

A Philly police department spokesperson, Sgt. Eric Gripp said Thursday that the 10 officers placed on desk duty made some of the worst remarks and are being investigated by internal affairs. He also mentioned that he did not know the names of the officers or if they were among the seven previously investigated for this behavior earlier this year. 

Police are not the only department diving in these posts and comments. District Attorney Larry Krasner is reportedly also investigating. 

CBS spoke with retired Philadelphia Police Lt. Steve Nolan, who worked with internal affairs often during his 37 year-long career, and he said that officers as a result of their actions, can be disciplined and potentially fired.