NYPD Tries to Avoid Having Egg on Their Facebook Pages

The NYPD is beginning to force its recruits to face the music and reveal to investigators just what is on their MySpace and Facebook pages before it becomes a headache for the department down the road. Not surprisingly, a few things have already turned up that have put would-be cops into hot water. The Post reports that one recruit's page featured a picture of him pointing a gun at a friend and a couple of others "whose networking accounts included boasts of gang membership, or photos of the applicant sporting gang-related tattoos and making gang gestures."

Previously the department's only policy had been to Google candidates and view what their public material—now they're being forced to log in. A 2007 investigation by the Daily News found accounts for a cop who proudly displayed videos of police brutality, one who had pictures of flashing women in front of their squad car and a rant from an officer irate against the indictments for officers in the Sean Bell case. Last summer a rookie cop who had been arrested and charged in three bank robberies had a public MySpace profile that simply listed his occupation as "oink."

The Post said that the department has no "written policy on what is objectionable—investigators just know it when they see it."