Swissvale police chief in hot water over joke posted on Facebook
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Swissvale police Chief Greg Geppert says he learned a lesson about the double-edged sword of social networking when he posted an off-color joke on his Facebook page that drew ire from some in the community.
The chief said he posted the joke -- which denigrates Muslims, Catholics and women -- on his personal page on Saturday morning at the urging of a friend, and "it was never meant to offend."
Yet his decision to air it on a public forum has angered some civic leaders and prompted borough officials to study their policies on use of social networking tools, which experts say can be just as valuable for police departments as they are dangerous.
Karen Hussaini, president of the SFH Islamic Interfaith Network in Pittsburgh, said she found the joke offensive on "so, so many levels" and that it raises questions about whether Chief Geppert's department can adequately and equally protect members of Swissvale's diverse community.
"It's intolerable and inappropriate," Ms. Hussaini said.
Chief Geppert's gaffe was only the latest of several that have embarrassed some police departments and left others scrambling to draft rules about what officers can and cannot do online.
The chief removed the post on Wednesday afternoon only after a Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reporter inquired about it with Mayor Deneen Swartzwelder, who then called him. Shortly later, Chief Geppert set his Facebook privacy settings so that all of his posts, which had been public, are no longer in view.
"In retrospect, I shouldn't have posted it," he said. "Looking back at it, it was probably a bad decision to do that."
Lauri Stevens, a "social media strategist for law enforcement," said, "These things happen every day, where officers of all ranks will put something on Facebook or another network, and they don't realize how public it really is. They need to realize they need to be more careful when they're in law enforcement," and held to a higher public standard.
Ms. Stevens recently began the Social Media the Internet and Law Enforcement Conference, a national seminar for police on the powers and problems they could encounter on the Internet. She also runs the blog ConnectedCOPS, a clearinghouse for issues involving social media and law enforcement that includes links to the recently crafted policies of several departments.
She points to several cases in which an officer's Facebook page has brought trouble, including a recent one in which New York City police officers violated policy against "discourteous or disrespectful remarks" about race and ethnicity when they formed a Facebook group to air their chagrin about working details at the West Indian American Day Parade in Brooklyn.
Other officers have lost their jobs, landed in court or had criminal cases tossed out because of comments they made on social networking websites. It was unclear whether Chief Geppert faces discipline. Upon learning of the post, Ms. Swartzwelder said she would "talk to him in private" and "look into what procedures and protocols exist for this type of thing."
Police departments need to set policies governing social media to prevent such problems, said Ms. Stevens. Most agencies try to strike a balance between an officer's First Amendment right to free speech and the department's interests, although a court would likely side with a public employer that restricted an employee's speech, said Witold Walczak, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania. Still, he added, social media is relatively uncharted legal territory.
Of the chief's post, Mr. Walczak said, "It's a joke, but it doesn't reflect well on the department. If you're a Catholic or a Muslim, are you going to get second-class treatment? It does raise concerns."
Even so, 23 of Chief Geppert's friends "liked" the post. Some of them identified themselves in their profiles as police officers from other departments
Other departments, including Mt. Lebanon and Pittsburgh police, have only very recently drafted policies concerning officers' use of social networks that are still wending their way through their law departments for approval.
Still, sites like the Facebook and Twitter can have benefits for a department trying to relay information or seek help from the public, as Chief Geppert knows. In an earlier wall post, he encouraged friends to help him raise money for the Special Olympics.
First Published December 16, 2011 12:00 am
