Ethical breach: Cops flagged for posting picture

For posting online a newspaper clipping containing a photograph of a 14-year-old crime suspect, two Cebu City policemen will not be getting their P2,000 allowance from the City Hall for November.

PO2 Nelson Gabucan, and P01 Clark Emperado belong to the Police- Community Relations (PCR) section of the Fuente Police Station.

They reportedly posted on social media a digital copy of a newspaper report of the arrest of the boy who was allegedly a member of a “Bukas Kotse Gang”.

Chief Insp. Wildemar Tiu, chief of the Fuente Police Station, said Gabucan told him that he only granted the request of a reporter to view the picture of the arrested minor which was in the PCR file.

The policeman claimed that the reporter allegedly had assured him that he will not take a photocopy of the boy’s photograph.

However, when the photographer who accompanied the reporter started taking pictures of the file photograph, Gabucan said he could no longer stop him from doing so.

Emperado, for his part, said he thought that the newspaper clipping came from a press release from their office that’s why he uploaded a digital copy on the social networking site Twitter.

Tiu was not aware of his men’s actions as he was off duty when the incident happened.

The uploading online of the newspaper article was flagged by the PNP headquarters in Camp Crame.

Tiu said the reporter and photographer were also at fault as they only asked permission to locate the minor’s address, and not to obtain a copy of the the minor’s photograph.

Tiu claimed that he had written the newspaper’s editor on the issue.

As the station commander, Tiu decided to suspend the allowance of Gabucan and Emperado for one month to teach them a lesson.

“It’s just a reminder to my personnel,” said Tiu.

Insp. Reslyn Abella of the Investigation and Detection Management Branch (IDMB) said that Gabucan and Emperado committed a breach of discipline.