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Aug 15, 2008 10:32 am US/Eastern
'RateMyCop' Web Site Stirring Up Controversy
Law Enforcement Officials Say Site Puts Them In Danger
FORT WORTH, Texas (CBS) ―
Everything is open to criticism on the Internet these days, from teachers and doctors, to restaurants and pets. But a relatively new Web site has made some cops angry and worried. It's called RateMyCop.com.
The name says it all. Go to the Web site and write what you think about a certain officer. RateMyCop.com has the names of thousands of officers and many believe it is putting them in danger, CBS station KTVT-TV in Dallas reports.
How did the Web site get the names? "We asked for them," says RateMyCop.com founder Gino Sesto. "We simply wrote letters to departments across the country saying we'd like a list of the officers that work for your department."
Creators of the site say no personal information will be on the site. They gathered officers' names, which are public information, from more than 450 police agencies nationwide. Some listings also have badge numbers along with the officer's names.
Officer Hector Basurto, the vice president of the Latino Police Officers Association in San Francisco, recently learned about the site. "I'd like to see it gone," he said. "Having a Web site like this out there puts a lot of law enforcement in danger; it exposes us out there."
Sesto calls police criticism of the site nonsense. "This Web site does not give out any personal information. A police officer's name is not personal," he says. "If they're doing a good job, they have nothing to fear. And that's our hope: that we would kind of sift out the bad cops."
Rebecca Costell, a spokesperson for the site, said in a statement that the site helps people rate more than 130,000 officers by rating them on authority, fairness and satisfaction.
She adds, "Our Web site's purpose is to break the stereotype that people have that cops are all bad by having officers become responsible for their actions."
The site is also protected by the First Amendment.
Police say you don't have to go to a Web site to praise or criticize officers, because each department has a system in place to accept, and if necessary, investigate what anyone has to say about a cop.
The Web site's creator says in the future, the site will allow police officers to respond to anything written about them.
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