Facebook posts by cops: How other locations in database with Philly are reacting
Officials in cities including Phoenix and St. Louis have pledged internal investigations, sensitivity training, and possible discipline over the scandal.
Philadelphia officials responded with near-universal dismay after advocates researching police bias published a database that they said contained thousands of biased, racist, or otherwise offensive Facebook posts by police officers.
Philadelphia was one of eight jurisdictions included in the database compiled by the Plain View Project. Here’s how officials in some of the other places have reacted.
Phoenix
Jeri Williams, chief of the Phoenix Police Department, told the Arizona Republic on Tuesday that she was shocked by some of the posts attributed to officers in her department, saying the content “clearly promoted and created hate and dissension.”
As a result, the newspaper reported, Williams said she was reassigning some officers to desk duty “so they can’t engage with the public.” She did not specify how many officers were being moved. The paper reported that the database included 179 questionable posts from 75 current Phoenix cops.
Phoenix Mayor Kate Gallego said there was “no context in which these statements are acceptable,” and added, “The choice by these officers to promote hate speech is a black cloud over all of us,” according to ABC-15.
But Phoenix City Council member Sal DiCiccio defended the police, who he said are frequently targets of distasteful language. “To smear our entire department for the words — not actions, words — of a handful of officers is at best disingenuous, and is truly insulting to the literally thousands of men and women who put their lives on the line for us every single day and do so with honor,” DiCiccio said, according to ABC-15.
St. Louis
Police in St. Louis will start sensitivity training next week after the Plain View Project said that 22 active officers there had made objectionable posts, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
According to the newspaper, Public Safety Director Jimmie Edwards said the database was “a snapshot, but enough of a snapshot that makes me concerned enough” to begin training.
The newspaper also said that the Police Department’s Internal Affairs division was investigating the posts, and quoted the president of an organization of African American officers as saying that an unspecified number of cops already had been disciplined over the issue.
St. Louis Mayor Lyda Krewson denounced the posts tied to city officers as “disturbing and unacceptable,” according to Fox-2.
Elsewhere
In York, Pa., current officers were accused of making 11 offensive posts, while retired cops accounted for 111, the database says.
According to PennLive, York Police Chief Troy Bankert said in a statement Tuesday: "The city is internally investigating the posts published by the Plain View Project and will take disciplinary action if any is warranted.”
The Lake County (Fla.) Sheriff’s Office told reporters with the news outlet Injustice Watch over the weekend that it was investigating the situation. The article did not elaborate.
Craig Kingsbury, the police chief in Twin Falls, Idaho, told the Hill newspaper this week that one of the people named in the database never worked for the department. He declined to comment on three other officers whose names matched Facebook accounts in the database.
The Plain View Project also documented posts from officers it said were based in Dallas and Denison, Texas.