The numbers in this article have been adjusted to reflect that the Plain View Project removed from its database one officer inaccurately included.
CHICAGO — When an armed, would-be robber backed out of a liquor store after the clerk pulled a gun on him, the surveillance video was posted on Facebook with a comment: “Should have shot him.”
Another commenter responded, “I would of pulled the trigger.”
These comments weren’t from your everyday Facebook users. They were the words of Philadelphia police officers.
Local law enforcement departments across the country have grappled with officers’ use of social media, often struggling to create and enforce policies that restrict offensive speech.
The North Charleston, SC, police department fired an officer for posting a photo of himself wearing Confederate flag underwear, days after a white supremacist killed nine black worshipers at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church just miles away. He later settled a wrongful termination suit.
