Two New York City police officers who used department computers to alter the Wikipedia pages for people who have died at the hands of police will not face any punishment, NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton announced Monday.
Officers made edits to the Wikipedia entries on Eric Garner, Sean Bell and Amadou Diallo, including replacing the word “chokehold” with “respiratory distress” on Garner’s page, and an attempt to delete the page for “Sean Bell shooting incident” outright, Gothamist reported.
The New York Post reports that 85 IP addresses on the police headquarters’ computer network made changes to various Wikipedia pages.
Mayor Bill de Blasio scolded the officers, telling reporters, “It’s a well known city policy that people are not supposed to do personal activities on city computers.”
“We’re quite clear that if you’re using city computers for personal business, this is not authorized,” he added.
Mr. Bratton said, “[The officers] have been identified. I do not anticipate any punishment.”
“We are in the process of reviewing our social media policies,” he added. “Wikipedia would be one where right now we don’t have a policy specific to accessing that site.”
• Jessica Chasmar can be reached at jchasmar@washingtontimes.com.
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