At least seven police officers in the United Kingdom have resigned, two have been sacked and 150 are facing disciplinary action for posting inappropriate comments or photos on social networking site Facebook in the last four years.
Police officers used the website to comment on other people’s wives, harass other people and brag about beating up people during protests. Some of them even tried to befriend crime victims and revealed police operation details.
The background data were released to the Press Association after a pre-planned Freedom of Information Act request.
“Social networking is seen as a risk by all forces and authorities, but there are limited or inconsistent policies around what is acceptable, what you should do, what you shouldn’t do,” said Roger Baker, leader of the review into police corruption for Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary. “We found a significant blurring between people’s professional lives on social networking sites and their private lives which may be in the public domain and private lives which probably should remain extremely private.”
One police officer was reportedly fired without notice for a racist post on Facebook, while another was sacked for abusing a fellow police officer.
The review found that 3.4 percent of officers identified themselves as members of the police, of which 2 percent posted inappropriate photos, status posts and comments. The study also found that one out of six police officers with public profiles display police-related content in their Facebook pages.
via: Ubergizmo
There's a similar story about teachers using Twitter today. Makes sense really
That's what happens when you employ people of low intelligence and put them in a job with responsibility.
A friend got sacked from teaching because she posted a joke status (something like, "…can be little s*#ts sometimes") on her Facebook about her students. You definitely have to be careful.