Greetings and Happy New Year!

I hadn't planned a blog post for today, but in the course of research a few hours ago I stumbled across a site that at first had me chuckling, but that I found increasingly disturbing the more I thought about its privacy and other implications. I'll provide the link at the end of this item -- as we proceed you'll understand why I'd prefer that you read this posting entirely before considering if you want to actually visit the site for yourself.

Dedicated to "The lighter side of law enforcement," it's sort of loosely like a giant wacky Facebook for cops, but includes photos that likely would violate Facebook's terms of use -- and that of most other (non-porn) sites.

The site is apparently registered to an individual in New York. While it may not be officially affiliated with police departments, the nature of the contents suggests that the site enjoys the cooperation in some manner of various police agencies and personnel.

The silly, off-color, and other jokes, plus a wide range of associated oddities, can easily be viewed as folks in a tough job letting off some steam.

But one section of the site, featuring an array of mostly uncensored photos of fully naked men and women interacting with police in various public contexts (protests, arrests, etc.) seems highly problematic, especially since the lack of any "masking" of photos makes many of the individuals completely identifiable.

It's one thing to argue that such photos show the reality of what law enforcement deals with, or that the photos' subjects were in public contexts where they had no expectation of privacy.

But the juxtaposition of these photos within a joke-filled "lighter side" Web site suggests that the images are present to amuse and titillate, not teach and inform.

One also can't help but wonder where these photos originated. Bystanders? Official police photography? On the scene media?

Regardless of the sources for the photos and other materials, the apparent "nod and wink" (if not fully active) association of various police agencies with this site strikes me as rather inappropriate at the very least.

But perhaps I'm being too sensitive about this and it's all just in good fun with no real privacy implications at all. Or perhaps some of the site's materials being displayed as they are actually do break privacy laws in some jurisdictions. I won't even try to pass judgment at this point. You can make up your own mind.

The site is called The Police Daily.

Their adult-oriented section can be reached via the "Police Flashers" link in the navigation bar on the left side of their home page. Frankly, I don't want to link to that section directly.

All in good fun? Or taking the "lighter side" of law enforcement too far?

What do you think?

--Lauren--