72 Philadelphia police officers on administrative duty after alleged offensive posts

Seventy-two Philadelphia police officers have been placed on administrative duty amid an investigation into racist or offensive social-media posts they allegedly made, Philadelphia Police Commissioner Richard Ross said Wednesday.

Authorities launched an internal investigation after the offensive posts were compiled into a public database by The Plain View Project. The database contains more than 5,000 Facebook posts from 3,500 current or former police officers from eight police jurisdictions across the country that contain racist, anti-Muslim, misogynist and violent rhetoric. 

"We’ve talked about from the outset how disturbing, how disappointing and upsetting these posts are,” Ross said at a press conference Wednesday. “They will undeniably impact police-community relations.”

In addition to the internal-affairs investigation, an independent law firm will concurrently investigate each case to determine whether the speech was constitutionally protected, Ross said. If the speech is not protected under the First Amendment, Ross said  disciplinary action ranging from suspension to termination would be considered.

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

Ross announced this month that all police personnel will undergo anti-racism training and additional training on social media, off-duty and race and discrimination policies. He added that an internal auditing process to monitor social-media posts made by police personnel will be implemented "in the near future."

"I must emphasize that those disturbing comments do not — in any way — reflect the values and beliefs of the thousands of honorable officers who make up this Department," Ross said in the statement. "I hope you can appreciate that this is not an easy task. We will be deliberate in our steps and will ultimately do what is in the best interest of the City and its residents."

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