Shocking news has emerged that a number of California-based police officers have been discovered sending nude or intimate images from the confiscated phones of arrested young females to their own mobile devices.

But even worse, none of the offending officers have lost their job over the scandal.

One officer, Sean Harrington, who is based in Martinez, California, admitted to having sent nude pictures to his colleagues on several occasions, and even revealed that such trading of images was something that had been going on for years.

The California Highway Patrol Officer disgustingly called the activity a "game" between he and his fellow officers, admitting thst he'd done the same thing to female arrestees at least "half dozen times in the last several years."

The scandal was revealed after one 23-year-old woman, who had been arrested and held for a driving under the influence (DUI) offence, discovered that a series of personal images from her phone had been sent to unfamiliar numbers while she had been in custody.

Despite the officer, Harrington, having been smart enough to erase any trace of the outgoing messages on her phone, he didn't consider the fact that they would already have synced with her iPad, where she later found the evidence.

And as Harrington confessed, this wasn't an isolated event. He was also rumbled for sending bikini shots of a 19-year-old woman who had been involved in a car accident to his colleague, Robert Hazelwood, with the creepy caption "Taken from the phone of my 10-15x while she's in X-rays. Enjoy buddy!!!" to which Hazelwood responded: "No fucking nudes?"

Gross.

And all the punishment Harrington has received is a slight demotion to an admin role.

Despite the somewhat lacking punishments, the California Highway Patrol Commissioner, Joe Farrow, has publicly expressed his disgust at the revelation. He released a statement saying "The allegations anger and disgust me. We expect the highest levels of integrity and moral strength from everyone in the California Highway Patrol, and there is no place in our organisation for such behaviour."

Perhaps adequate punishment might be the first step towards enforcing the idea that incidents like this are completely unacceptable.

Catriona Harvey-Jenner Digital Features Editor Cat is Cosmopolitan UK's features editor covering women's issues, health and current affairs.

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