Far more police had porn emails

Up to 3000 police staff were originally found to have unacceptable emails during an internal audit of the computer system.

The discovery led investigators to raise the threshold of what was inappropriate, so they could reduce the numbers of staff to be investigated.

Various police sources have told the Weekend Herald the first sweep of the computer system is believed to have picked up more than 1200 and possibly 3000 staff, who had questionable material ranging from nudity to hardcore pornography.

It is understood that the sheer volume of investigation required to question that many staff led to the threshold being raised. That reduced the number to 328, of whom 30 are under criminal investigation.

Police Commissioner Rob Robinson would not talk to the Weekend Herald last night, but his office confirmed that more than those 328 staff were identified as having unacceptable emails in the system.

"Many staff had private emails of varying content stored on their systems and we had to determine what would be in and what would be out of the investigation," spokesman Jon Neilson said.

Investigators analysed 300,000 embedded image files, of which 5000 were "of concern".

The audit was sparked by a wide-ranging probe into the police culture, but Mr Neilson would not say what other areas were looked at.

The content of the objectionable emails "ranges from male and female nudity through to images which could be considered objectionable. Generally speaking, the images would not be readily available free-to-air, but most are similar to images that might be seen in 'adult only' magazines and 'adult only' videos readily available in New Zealand."

But the Weekend Herald understands a large amount of material that the 328 had is what police officers have described as "joke" material. This includes a cartoon of Marge Simpson performing oral sex on husband Homer and "Ten Reasons Not to Drink" - said to be 10 images of drunk people put in odd positions, of which many were not sexual.

Asked if any of the inappropriate images were originally crime scene shots or photos taken for evidence that had then been misused, Mr Neilson said it "would be most unwise for anyone to make prejudgments ahead of explanations being sought".

All of the 328 staff implicated in the scandal have been sent a letter telling them they are subject to the investigation.

Mr Neilson said the details of the letters "are a matter between the employer and employee at this point. They outline the process. They do not instruct staff."

The letters differ depending on whether the staff are sworn and non-sworn staff, and the nature and seriousness of the images "to reflect the possible action that could be taken once the individual case had been investigated".

One senior officer told the Weekend Herald that most police involved - other than those under criminal investigation - were being encouraged to admit guilt, attend a workshop and have a letter on file for 12 months.

He believed most would defy a direction to front at community meetings to be told how their actions have harmed them and the police. "Most just won't go," he said.

Computer forensic consultant Chris Budge said 330 having pornography on their computers in a workforce of 10,000 was considerably below average, in his experience.

His company, eCrime, is called in by businesses to audit their systems.

Meanwhile, Police Minister George Hawkins said yesterday he was pleased Mr Robinson was "taking a stand" over the porn cases and ensuring police did their job.

- additional reporting, staff reporters