EWING, N.J. (AP) -- Activists say it took only $16 and a trip to a public auction to acquire township computers with porn and other non-work files on them -- fodder for their claims that Ewing police are clocking too much overtime.
Steve Sredinski, who ran a Web site on local issues, said he only needed some free user-friendly software downloaded online to extract previously viewed porn files, and memos written for non-work activities such as a police golf outing and a department flag football game.
"The police department is crying about the overtime money they need. But the police department has a lot of time to do all of (these things) online,'' Sredinski told The Trentonian of Trenton for Wednesday newspapers.
There were also internal police department memos that hadn't been properly scrubbed from the hard drive. When the activists posted some of the memos online, the township threatened to sue if the memos weren't taken down, according to township attorney Mike Hart.
Ewing officials were concerned about the private information that might be contained in some of the documents.
"I'm surprised something like this happened. I'm concerned about what other information is floating around out there, not only from police computers but from computers from our personnel office,'' Councilman Bert Steinmann told The Times of Trenton.
Police Chief Robert Coulton said his department was investigating what type of internal files may have entered the public domain. As for the porn files, Coulton thought it would be difficult to find out how they got on the computers, since police haven't had the computers for years.
"How do I know these haven't been adulterated in any way?'' Coulton said.
The computers were auctioned at a time when the township government had taken over the police department's computer purchasing. Before that, police had made sure to remove hard drives from computers being disposed of, a practice that Coulton said eventually resumed.
Posted by: Delta784
Anyone who does personal business on a department computer is a moron. My old personal computers get taken a mile or so out to sea and dumped overboard.
Posted by: KozmoKramer
I just dump mine in the trash... (Minus the HDD's of course...)
ma police, boston ma police, massachusetts police, massachusetts police, mass state police, mass police, ma, mass, massachusetts, massachusetts, massachutes, massachusetts law, massachusetts polece, police, officer, police officer, cops, police gear, law enforcement, police duty gear, state police, sheriff, law, police supply, police agency directory, police agency, police department, traffic officer, police dept, state trooper, dispatcher, massachusetts county sheriff, massachusetts sheriff, massachusetts department of corrections, ma doc, doc, dept of corrections, police information, civil service, ma civil service, massachusetts crime, police training, police academy, ma police academy, massachusetts officers, masscop, masscops, mpa, bpa, ibpoa, police association, massachusetts police news, massachusetts crime news, mass most wanted, police career information, police patrol, police administration, police books, crime scene training, police discussion, crime discussions, cops
About MassCops, the home for Massachusetts law enforcement.
The Massachusetts Law Enforcement Network opened in 1998 and is now a part of the New England Police Network The site is a pro-police discussion forum intended for sworn police officers and civilian law enforcement officials as well as those interested in pursuing a career in law enforcement here in Massachusetts.
The goal of The Massachusetts Law Enforcement Network is to provide an informal network of law enforcement officials here in Massachusetts for educational and informational purposes.
The forum covers many topics such as Police Related News Articles, Agency & Profession Discussions, Police Training as well as Law Enforcement Career Information.
The Massachusetts Law Enforcement Network and The New England Police Network (NEPN) and it's network sites are privately owned websites/domains and are not affiliated with or endorsed by any government association or agency.
MassCops (masscops.com) and (masscop.com) are privately owned are not affiliated with or endorsed by the Massachusetts Coalition of Police (masscop.org)
ma police, boston ma police, massachusetts police, massachusetts police, mass state police, mass police, ma, mass, massachusetts, massachusetts, massachutes, massachusetts law, massachusetts polece, police, officer, police officer, cops, police gear, law enforcement, police duty gear, state police, sheriff, law, police supply, police agency directory, police agency, police department, traffic officer, police dept, state trooper, dispatcher, massachusetts county sheriff, massachusetts sheriff, massachusetts department of corrections, ma doc, doc, dept of corrections, police information, civil service, ma civil service, massachusetts crime, police training, police academy, ma police academy, massachusetts officers, masscop, masscops, mpa, bpa, ibpoa, police association, massachusetts police news, massachusetts crime news, mass most wanted, police career information, police patrol, police administration, police books, crime scene training, police discussion, crime discussions, cops