A whopping 21 Dallas police officers are under investigation for “racist or violent” Facebook posts, which were uncovered by the Plainview Project. Four others have been placed on administrative leave, the Dallas police chief announced Friday.
The Plainview Project, which released its findings on June 1, spent two years examining more than 3,000 social media accounts of both retired and active officers. It found that one in five current officers and two in five retired officers–across the nation–routinely posted racist and violent content on their Facebook accounts.
Three-hundred of the 5,000 posts, collected by the project, allegedly came from active Dallas officers.
“Just another savage that needs to be exterminated” and “Execute all involved” were some of the comments written by Booker Smith Jr., a Dallas police sergeant.
A Dallas Police Department spokesperson told the project at the time that it forwarded Smith’s comments to his superiors for further review.
The Dallas Police Department prohibits its officers from posting “biased” or “discriminatory” content, according to its social media policies.
The project, launched by Philadelphia lawyer Emily Baker-White, analyzed officers in eight–both large and small–police departments: Phoenix; St. Louis; Philadelphia; Dallas; York, Pennsylvania; Twin Falls, Idaho; Denison, Texas; and Lake County, Florida.
In June, 72 Philadelphia and St. Louis police officers were placed strictly on desk duty following the report’s findings. 1,073 of the roughly 6,660 officers in Philadelphia posted offensive content.
READ MORE:
- 72 officers removed from patrol over ‘offensive’ Facebook posts
- A review of officers’ Facebook accounts shows routine racist, violent posts
- Hundreds of police officers belong to extremist Facebook groups, investigation finds
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