Police officers caught using 'key jammer' WFH hack to go to gym or play golf while 'working'
Last year, some Greater Manchester Police officers were caught 'key-jamming' on days where they were working from home, leading to a suspension of the work arrangement.
The method allows people to falsely appear to be working, when they may be doing something else - a method which has become popular in the majority of industries since the Covid-19 pandemic.
A total of 28 police officers, staff and contractors faced misconduct proceedings following the probe, as the anti-corruption unit found that there was 'abnormal key stroke behaviour' on GMP-issued devices.
Key-jamming can involve items being left on a computer keypad or the device being manipulated to make someone appear to be active at work.
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It goes beyond the GMP though, as one Avon and Somerset Police officer was sacked last month, after a misconduct hearing found that she was pretending to work.
The method isn't fool-proof though, as it was found that her keystrokes were three to eight times higher than colleagues in a similar role.
This isn't a new problem, with many workers, including law enforcement officers, 'key-jamming' to get by when they are working from home.
Metro reports that the UK police force has sacked 50 'keyboard jammers' in the past three years, with some managing to go out and enjoy certain leisure activities during work hours.
According to the BBC, former detective Niall Thubron, once part of the Durham Constabulary, pressed the 'i' key more than 16,000 times on 3 December 2024, between 10.28am and 11.56am, as an investigation found he used key jamming for 45 hours out of a total of 85 that he was logged in for.
One Kent police officer also used the method so he could go to the gym and then a golf course during the working day, as he was found 'key-jamming' for 60 hours out of the 136 he was supposed to work.
Avon and Somerset Police's PC Liam Reakes, was found guilty of weighing down the 'z' key during shifts for a total of 103 hours between June and September 2024, sometimes for over four hours at a time.
While it is easy to put your feet up again when you're working from home, you wouldn't expect police officers to forgo close to half of their WFH hours for a round of golf.
GMP has acted though, sacking and barring four members in December as a result of being caught 'key-jamming', as two others had already resigned.
Having detected 'abnormal keystroke behaviour' on devices, the force said that each person had spent thousands of minutes pretending to work, when they actually weren't.
Speaking after these officers were punished, Deputy Chief Constable Terry Woods said: "I'm grateful to the work of the anti-corruption unit for conducting this proactive operation to root out poor performance, dishonesty and conduct that is just not conducive with working for GMP.
"This work is doing a great service to the public and our workforce to ensure that the people of Greater Manchester can have confidence that their police force will not stand for the tiny minority that reflect badly on the thousands of decent, hard-working staff that serve the public so brilliantly every day."
He added that they are looking to tackle 'police corruption and misconduct', assing: "As these recent proactive investigations demonstrate, the chief and I mean it when we say we're serious about 'rooting out' and 'booting out'."
Joshua Nair