Police officer fired after using sneaky trick to pretend she was working from home

A cop has been fired from their job for coming up with a devious way to make it appear like they were hard at work, when they were in fact hardly working at all.

With technology able to track our every movement of the mouse or clacking of the keyboard, even when you are working from home, it is not particularly difficult for your employer to tell when you are taking extra long breaks to do the dishes, or just stare into space.

But a police sergeant in the UK figured out a surprisingly low-tech solution to fool her bosses, or so she thought after placing a picture frame on her keyboard to prevent her computer from going to sleep - which would have flagged that she wasn't working.

The officer, referred to as Sergeant X at accelerated misconduct hearings this week, admitted that she had been using the corner of a picture frame to to keep keys on her laptop pressed down to give the false impression that she was working. But it wasn't hard for her bosses to figure out her grift.

Sergeant X gave into the temptation to slack off when she was working from home (Getty Stock Image)

While using a picture frame in this way gave the initial impression that she was online and working, tech specialists at police headquarters quickly cottoned on to her deception after they noticed one of their officers had entered an exceptionally high number of keystrokes.

They actually spotted her trick almost straight away, with the officer getting away with slacking off for most of April and May, 2024, with her local force's professional standards department opening an investigation into her work in June of that year.

At her misconduct hearing this week, they detailed how the police officer's keystroke in these two months were between 300 and 800 percent higher than those of her hard working colleagues. Or, at least those who'd bought a lighter picture frame.

Sergeant X admitted to her scam when the evidence was presented, but also gave a justification for her actions.

Sergeant X's behavior amounted to gross misconduct, the panel found (Getty Stock Image)

She told the panel that she had started using the picture frame during a moment of great personal difficulty in her life, with it allowing her to monitor for urgent calls while dealing with other matters.

However, her justification did little to change the outcome of the misconduct hearing, which ruled that her behavior amounted to gross misconduct and barred her from ever working with the police or other law enforcement agencies.

Though Sergeant X's personal difficulties were not disclosed by the panel, it was agreed that she could retain her anonymity after the hearing.

Det Supt Larisa Hunt, the head of Avon and Somerset Police’s Professional Standards Department, said: “It is extremely disappointing an officer has behaved in a way which could not only discredit the police force, but also undermine the public confidence in respect of our duties and responsibilities.

“We know officers and staff deal with immense pressure and high workloads, and while Sgt X had some mitigating circumstances, it’s unacceptable for an officer to act in this deliberate and deceitful way by abusing the trust placed in her, by making it appear she was working when she was not.

“We recognise the overwhelming majority of our officers and staff work hard to protect the public.”