Today’s “wow, people really suck” story comes straight to you from the California highways. Or, to be more specific, California’s Highway Police. Apparently, a few officers from Contra Costa County, California, have created a new, sick game to pass the time. They began accessing the cell phones of female suspects brought into custody, and then sending nude or semi-nude photos of these women to themselves. Allegedly, the pictures were then passed to the other officers playing the “game.”
The practice was uncovered when a 23-year-old woman from San Ramon, California, was arrested on DUI charges. While she was being processed, her belongings — including her iPhone — were in police possession. Five days after being released she noticed something strange on her iPad — nude photos that she had on her phone had been sent to an unknown number. While the record was deleted from her iPhone, the phone had synced with the iPad, and the record was not deleted from there.
It was discovered that CHP Officer Sean Harrington was the one who had the woman’s cellphone, and appears to be the center figure of this sick game. Dublin CHP Officer Robert Hazelwood is allegedly one of Harrington’s partners in crime, according to texts between the two. The text messages are lewd, and contain insulting and sexist remarks about the women whose photos were stolen. One exchange states, “Nudes are always better with the face,” and “Maybe she knows she has a jacked-up horse face?!?!?”
A third officer is believed to be involved, or at least was witness to the behavior. The case is now under serious investigation and scrutiny, and there is believed to be other women whose photos were stolen by Harrington.
Golden Gate Division Chief Avery Browne responded to his officers’ disgusting behavior at a press conference late Saturday night in which he claimed the practice was limited to the Dublin office. That being said, this may not be as isolated of an incident as Chief Browne claims. According to Senior Contra Costa district attorney inspector Darryl Holcombe:
Harrington said he first learned of this scheme when he was working in the Los Angeles office. Harrington said when he was assigned to the Dublin office, he learned from other officers that they would access the cell phones of female arrestees and look for nude photographs of them. Harrington said if photographs were located, the officers would then text the photographs to other sworn members of the office, and, to non-CHP individuals. Harrington described this scheme as a game.
There’s a lot that’s disturbing in that comment. Harrington could just be trying to cover his ass, yes, but I also think that it’s a real possibility that this is a systemic issue. After all, earlier this year a Long Island woman sued the NYPD arguing that photos of her were taken off her phone while she was in custody.
In a world where an average women can easily find herself fired because her photos are posted on a “revenge porn” site and celebrities’ nudes are stolen and shared on the internet with no regard for personal privacy, I suppose this isn’t too surprising. There’s something about a woman choosing to take nude photos in private that apparently renders her right to privacy null and void. And a woman who commits some other transgression — in the case of the San Ramon woman, driving under the influence — apparently loses any other right to privacy she had. The San Ramon woman committed a crime, yes, and she deserves to receive whatever punishment for that crime that justice decrees. However, that does not mean that Harrington and Hazelton suddenly became entitled to invade her privacy — her crime does not render her any less human. Harrington and Hazelton committed a crime, and they deserve to pay for it.
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Anneliese Mahoney (@AMahoney8672) is Lead Editor at Law Street and a Connecticut transplant to Washington D.C. She has a Bachelor’s degree in International Affairs from the George Washington University, and a passion for law, politics, and social issues. Contact Anneliese at amahoney@LawStreetMedia.com.
Featured image courtesy of [Gordon Mei via Flickr]