I was appalled to see a tweet criticizing protesters and city of Boston and state leaders inappropriately posted to the Salem Police Department’s Twitter account this morning and am glad that the department acted swiftly, within minutes, to have it taken down. The sentiments that the Tweet expressed do not in any way reflect the values or positions of the department or the City of Salem. The City of Salem fully supports the right of every resident to express themselves and their viewpoints through the exercise of their First Amendment rights.
The Police Department has begun an internal review to identify who posted the Tweet and to discipline them accordingly. I have directed the Chief to include non-Police employees, from our Information Technology Department, our Legal Department, and our Human Resources Department as part of that review, and she has agreed. The results of this investigation and the subsequent disciplinary action will be made available to the public.
To be clear, the tweet posted this morning to the Salem Police Department’s account was not one issued or sanctioned by the department or the City. While it has been removed from Twitter, we have a responsibility to ensure that the individual responsible is held accountable, and that we strengthen our internal policies around the use of official social media accounts to try to prevent anything like this from happening again.
