DEVON & CORNWALL, England — Cops in the British counties of Devon and Cornwall were blocked from accessing porn sites more than 700 times between June and August of this year, a BBC investigation has uncovered.
The figures were released under the Freedom of Information Act and point to police force users, officers and agency staff.
According to police officials, the force blocked all sites found by the filter to contain adult content that included "sites containing profanity or dating websites," or any site that contained information and content only suitable for adults.
However, the cops maintained that the blocks were triggered by pop-up ads originating from “legitimate” sites and not as a result of porn surfing employees.
"The software we use to monitor Internet usage is a commercial application that uses finely-tuned filters. The software blocks and prevents access to websites which are suspected to have inappropriate content, such as gambling or pornography," Deputy Chief Constable David Zinzan, said.
The filters reportedly blocked 187 porn sites in June, 241 in July and 273 in August.
Officials said the force had "very strict Internet security policies" and is confident that most employees do not regularly access porn. "Almost all staff know better than to compromise themselves which could lead to disciplinary action," Sinzan said.
The chief stressed that the perception that his department has a problem with porn can be misconstrued, and that of his 6,000-member workforce only an "extremely small number of people" have been disciplined in the last few years.