Even Police Officers Need To Watch Social Media
We all know that what you post on social media can live forever, but that doesn’t mean everyone listens to this. The same holds true for police officers, and two St. Louis police officers have been fired for what they have posted on social media. 22 St. Louis City police officers have been put on an exclusion list.
ST. LOUIS (KMOV.com) — Two St. Louis Metropolitan police officers have been fired over social media posts, their lawyer told News 4.
Officers Thomas Mabrey and Ronald Hasty are appealing their terminations to the Civil Service Commission.
A letter obtained by News 4 shows 22 St. Louis City police officers have been put on an “exclusion list” due to an investigation into allegations about social media posts.
“We look forward to vigorously defending both officers’ reputations and are confident their actual records as police officers, and not Facebook shares and likes posted as private citizens will ultimately rule the day,” their lawyer, Brian Millikan, said.
Facebook posts from Mabrey and Hasty were compiled by The Plain View Project which is a database of Facebook posts and comments from current and former police officers.
Earlier this year, the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department announced they were investigating allegations that several current and former officers made racist, violent, homophobic, and anti-Muslim posts on Facebook.
In June, Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner’s office put together an “exclusion list” of 22 officers not allowed to testify in court. Of the 22, seven were permanently banned from presenting cases to the Circuit Attorney’s Office. We reached out to Gardner’s office to find out if these two officers were on the exclusion list. We have not heard back yet.
We’ve also reached out to the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department and are waiting to hear back.