Up to 100 Australian police under investigation for forwarding racist e-mail

Aust. police face discipline over racist e-mail

MELBOURNE, Australia — Up to 100 police officers in the Australian state of Victoria are under investigation over racist e-mails that have been circulated in the internal police e-mail system, a top official said Thursday.

Chief Commissioner Simon Overland said the police ethical standards department had found multiple e-mails that were too shocking to be released publicly.

He would not confirm the subject matter of the emails but said some were “extremely serious, some are offensive” and raised questions about some officers’ suitability to their jobs.

“If the Victorian public were aware of the nature of that material, I believe that it’s of such a nature that it would cause significant concern within the Victorian community,” Overland told Australian Broadcasting Corp. radio.

Overland said those who introduced the material into the police e-mail system would be fired.

The Age newspaper reported that the investigation centered on a graphic image of a non-Caucasian man being tortured. It said computer experts tracking the e-mails found that several police had added further racist comments before forwarding the image.

The report said those who forwarded the image would be cautioned, while those who added comments faced more serious internal charges.

Overland refused to confirm whether the e-mails targeted Indians or Africans, two minority groups that have criticized police conduct in recent months.

Overland last week acknowledged that a small minority of police officers were racist, in response to a report that said police suffered from a “culture of racism.”