ACT Policing’s pornographic tweet “unintentional error” of worker

The Australian Capital Territory (ACT) Policing member who retweeted a pornographic image from the official police Twitter account immediately confessed, according to the territory's top officer.

The issue caused controversy on New Year’s Eve when an employee retweeted a pornographic image from the official police Twitter account.

The retweet showed 'selfies' of a woman which included full-frontal nudity, The Sydney Morning Herald reported.

ACT Policing reportedly deleted the tweet minutes later and unfollowed the account which had sent the original tweet shortly after.

Chief police officer Rudi Lammers assured the public that the ACT Policing Twitter account was safe.

“This was an unintentional error by a member of ACT Policing outside the ACT Policing media team who inadvertently re-tweeted a tweet on the ACT Policing Twitter account,” he said. “The member immediately saw the error and reported the incident to AFP Professional Standards. This is now the subject of an AFP Professional Standards investigation therefore I am unable to comment further until that investigation has been completed.”

In the meantime, ACT Policing social media protocols were being reviewed.

"ACT Policing, like many policing organisations, extensively uses social media to deliver important public messages and to work with the community," Assistant Commissioner Lammers said. "We will continue to use social media to inform and engage well with the ACT community."