Eight more police computer images go to censor

Eight more inappropriate images found on police officers' computers will be sent to the Chief Censor to decide if they are illegal, a police commissioner's office spokeswoman said tonight.

Last month, police revealed 328 staff had been caught with 5000 inappropriate images on their computers. Thirty staff had images of sufficiently objectionable content to warrant criminal investigation.

Three of those images have been forwarded to Chief Censor Bill Hastings, one of which he said he has deemed objectionable.

The eight images would bring the total sent to Mr Hastings for his consideration to 11, the spokeswoman told NZPA.

She declined to give a description of the images, which would be sent to Mr Hastings "once we've got an explanation from the staff".

That would probably be within the next 14 days, she said.

"It's probably too early to say at this point (if charges will be filed), we're just still looking at it."

Charges against the officer who had the image already deemed objectionable were likely, but have yet to be filed.

Mr Hastings told NZPA tonight he had not received the eight new images or official notification they were being sent to him.

He said he understood police would forward about 30 images to him in total.

Deputy Commissioner Lyn Provost has said most police officers caught with pornography on their computers would keep their jobs and have the incident wiped from personal records after a year.

She told police magazine Ten-One there was an amnesty for staff to remove other inappropriate material not picked up in the audit of police computers late last year.

- NZPA