Fergie's Tech Blog

Seattle: Port Police Officers Sent Explicit e-Mails

Eric Nalder and Lewis Kamb write in The Seattle Post-Intelligencer:

Thirty-two current and former Port of Seattle police officers -- nearly a third of the department's sworn force -- have been caught exchanging or receiving racist, sexist and sexually explicit e-mails since the end of October 2004, department records obtained by the Seattle P-I show.

For 16 months, no one in the department reported the smut-laced e-mails to top-level managers or internal investigators, even though the field-level supervisors joined line officers spending hours on their shifts viewing the material. The behavior wasn't discovered until a woman accused one officer of harassment, and internal investigators looked at his computer.

Records obtained by the P-I show such behavior has been going on in the department for years, including a case in 1997 that involved a prominent sergeant who is now a lieutenant and SeaTac city councilman.

posted by Fergie @ 1/18/2007 11:20:00 PM