Computers using IP addresses from the New York Police Department headquarters were linked to edits made on several Wikipedia pages for high-profile police incident victims, an investigation by Capital New York revealed Friday. Wikipedia entries for Eric Garner, Sean Bell, and Amadou Diallo were among those accessed by the IP addresses.
Because NYPD computers can access a variety of IP addresses available to the department, it's unclear how many actual users were involved, Capital notes. But this isn't the first time IP addresses from the 1 Police Plaza network have been found editing potentially incriminating Wikipedia entries. Capital points out that such addresses have also been used to edit articles on stop-and-frisk and certain police leaders.
The changes made to Eric Garner's Wikipedia page included clarifying that Garner was "considerably larger" than any of the present officers and replacing the word "chokehold" twice with less severe language. An NYPD spokewoman said the matter is "under internal review." Read the full report at Capital New York.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Continue reading for free
We hope you're enjoying The Week's refreshingly open-minded journalism.
Subscribed to The Week? Register your account with the same email as your subscription.