February 29, 2008 | Online

Online profile loses cop his promotion

Inspector Chris Dreyfus may be regretting ever creating a  profile. The senior British police officer had been promoted to chief inspector with Bedfordshire Police, but because of things he posted on his Facebook profile the offer was quickly rescinded.

He had received a disciplinary warning earlier last year because of the profile; he was given a written warning for disclosing details of his "gay lifestyle" and advertising he was looking for "whatever I can get." He also posted photos of himself in uniform.

He agreed to remove any reference to his job as an officer, but argued he had every right to post about his private life on his own time. (Which, to us, makes sense.) : "As long as I do not do anything to disgrace the force then what I do privately is acceptable."  

The Bedfordshire Police claim that “after the interview (on 13 February) we ran routine background checks and we were told he had a live sanction against him. Therefore we felt unable to proceed with the job offer.”

Because heaven forbid they hire a poof with a facebook profile. What will the criminals think?