Seriously are these people totally stupid? No officer should be under any illusion that posting stuff on WhatsApp etc is a safe place to vent or have a laugh or do anything the "we will not tolerate" brigade now deems to fall foul of the code of ethics. Because it only takes one phone to fall into the hands of the PSD and then it is game over for everyone in the group.

I agree with Paul BUT the vetting argument is just nonsense and scare mongering or at worse some people seeing a “business opportunityâ€쳌. How many professions with enhance dbs checks commit serious crime? You can only know why you know anything else is guessing.

Every edition of 'Police Oracle' seems to have an article in it relating to officers and staff using social media platforms to share their disgusting thoughts and actions. What on earth was going through a serving officer's mind when he posted a video of himself having sex with two women? Maybe officers and staff should be warned about the consequences of such actions when they are being vetted; perhaps they could be made aware of such investigations just to emphasize how seriously these matters are taken. But now I seem to have answered my own question because there isn't any face-to-face contact during the vetting process. Social media needs to be renamed ANTIsocial media and the vetting process needs to be used for actually VETTING a person's suitability to become an officer and not just a tick box exercise.

Beats investigating street crime doesn't it! However I make no excuse for the lack of awareness and intelligence of the minority of officers who seem to have their brains in neutral in terms of social media use jobwise.

...said the biggest 'Gob on a Stick' Vera Baird, the woman who refused to pick up her dogs mess on a London Railway Station platform. Kettle, pot.