72 Philly Cops On Desk Duty Amid Biased Social Media Post Probe

PHILADELPHIA — As authorities look into allegedly biased social media posts by hundreds of Philadelphia Police officers, Commissioner Richard Ross said more than 70 officers are off the streets.

In a press conference Wednesday, Ross said 72 officers are on desk duty as the investigation into the allegedly racists, anti-Muslim, and other social media posts by members of the force.

The Plain View Project dived into social media posts of Philadelphia Police officers and alleges about 330 active members of the department made posts that researchers call dehumanizing, supportive of violence, and that "could erode civilian trust and confidence in police."

Ross said every post in the database compiled by the Plain View Project is being looked at and that each case will be handled on a case-by-case basis.

"I’m not prepared to tell you at this point who is being disciplined and how many may be terminated," Ross said Wednesday. "But I can tell you with a degree of certainty that there are some people who will meet with that fate."

You can see the full post database compiled by the project here.

Ross said the department will conduct anti-racist/anti-bias training for all police personnel; give additional roll call training on the social media, off-duty and race and discrimination policies; and in the near future begin employing an internal auditing process to monitor social media posts by police personnel.