Recently, I posted about a scandal involving racial profiling in Massachusetts police forces, and there is another scandal involving police officers in the northeast, this time, involving social media. New York Police department men and women have taken to Instagram to show off their fit bodies, and the department believes that they have taken it too far.
Policemen and women are capturing photos, or "selfies", of themselves, often scantily clad, in order to show off their bodies, which they keep in shape due to their line of work. The pictures then end up placed next to pictures of the same officer in his or her uniform and posted to the Instagram account dedicated to this. The problem? The New York Police Department has a rule that clearly states that officers are not to post pictures of themselves in uniform online unless the photo was taken at an official ceremony.
Some think that it is acceptable for the officers to post the pictures of themselves because they are simply showing what they would be wearing in normal clothes, while others think that it is completely unacceptable of them to break the explicit rule of the NYPD. My thoughts on the matter fall somewhere in the middle of the two opposing parties. I believe that police officers should be allowed to post pictures of themselves just like any civilian can. However, I think that it is the professionalism of the entire police department that is at stake when individual officers post inappropriate photos of themselves accompanied with their official badges, etc. They should keep in mind that their actions do reflect on all members of the department, even if it was just one person who is partaking in the act.
This is a link to the news clip in which commentators discuss whether or not the officers who posted the "selfies" should be punished with a deduction of vacation time.
http://pix11.com/2014/12/02/some-cops-penalized-for-posting-selfies-while-in-uniform-report/?hpt=us_bn7
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