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http://uk.news.yahoo.com/skynews/20080623/tuk-crash-cops-rapped-for-facebook-boast-45dbed5.html

By Sky News SkyNews - 2 hours 38 minutes ago

Eighteen police officers have been disciplined over web boasts about crashing cars and hitting pedestrians.


The Metropolitan Police officers were rapped after an investigation into photos and comments posted on the Facebook site 'Look I've Had a Pocol' - slang for police collision.

The social networking site had more than 200 members around the world before it was taken down in January.

One photograph showed a police vehicle in an accident with a small white car.

The officer who posted it wrote: "I did him a favour. At 82 years old you just shouldn't be on the road and if you are, then most certainly don't go through a green light into the path of an innocent police car."

Another member wrote: "Ran over a drunk. I believe he has a permanent limp and a hefty payout. I was given a three-month holiday from job driving. Ooh, bummer."

One picture showed a uniformed officer giving a thumbs-up next to a vehicle, which seemed to have hit a fallen tree.

Another picture featured the wreckage of a patrol car after it had mounted the kerb and hit a lamppost.

A spokesman for the Metropolitan police said the offending officers were given written warnings for misconduct.

"Fourteen officers received written warnings and four were given a speaking to. The warnings will remain on their records. Another five had unofficial words in their ear," he said.

The disciplinary action follows a driving ban in January for a policeman who made 'thumbs-up' gestures to speed cameras while racing to emergencies.

David Mayes, 34, from Barnsley, was also fined £400.

Also in February, the Independent Police Complaints Commission concluded an probe into officers from South Wales who competed to see how far they could travel from the station while on duty.

The Gwent officers, nicknamed the "seaside five", took their patrol cars as far as the beach on Barry Island.

Two were told to resign from the force, another two were fined 13 days pay and a fifth resigned before the conduct hearing.

We need more traffic officers on the road, obviously.

Oh, wait, is this the wrong thread?

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COAST Not just somewhere to keep a beach.

A young loner on a crusade to champion the cause of the innocent, the helpless, the powerless, in a world of criminals who operate above the law.

What is necessarily wrong with giving a thumbs up to a speed camera as long as he was in control of the car?

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Currently undergoing training with the I.A.M.

He did it with both hands off the wheel, so it's quite hard to argue that he was in control...

None of this is a surprise to me, Ive seen more than enough errr cough cough, naughty behavior by imature coppers, I personally think standards in police have fallen dramatically over the decades, I think their selection process leaves a lot to be desired and if anyone tells me that todays cops use initiative, I will laugh my socks off, likewise if someone tells me they are experts , which would also lead me to question the courts too!

Now I know you will find many a good copper and one or two genuine experts who are cops or ex cops but not as many as public would like to believe. You only have to know a few cops,retired cops or early disillusioned leavers,as well as first hand examples to know my opinion is not far from accurate. And when you have been on the recieving end of crappy cops over the years it doesnt help their image in my eyes. If the posters details are correct what you all should worry about is how many have NOT been caught and WHAT ELSE are some up to?. The institution of the police protects its own as far as it possibly can, using every measure and tactic at our expense to do so. If the police as an organisation could get away with many a sorry assed officers behavior they will as they consider it more damaging to persue out of house. There are cops who dont break the rules just because they feel they can get away with it and there are those who do. Sadly the latter is on the increase in my opinion. They do a difficult and sometimes dangerous job that I admire them for and would support any ligitimate police action. But that does not mean I should turn a blind eye (as they often do as a force and individual cop to cop)to their wrong doing. And as we had to suffer an ex police woman on 'so you think you are a good driver' on the TV, camera in car recording her action as she chose to be self appointed traffic ruler of the universe, committing every sort of minor driving error (as well as a couple more serious) as she drove through the city gesticulating and bollocking every other road user for something and nothing like a pmt maniac, makes me wonder....did she leave the force or was she pushed. I do hope she was pushed or I will have to lower my opinion of the police yet another degree.