You may have heard the story going around Houston about Stacey Suro, the Houston Police Department Sargeant who’s getting flack for photos she posted on Model Mayhem for her side job as a model (her profile has since been taken down). She’s been suspended and is facing possible termination. From Nefertiti Jaquez over at Click2Houston.com:
She has 175 friends on Facebook, but it’s not the Facebook picture of her in a Houston Police Department uniform that’s getting Stacey Suro in trouble. It’s the risqué photos she plastered on Model-Mayhem.com that’s stirring up all of the controversy.
In fact, Suro, who’s a police sergeant, has been relieved of duty pending the outcome of an Internal Affairs investigation.
I saw this and immediately wondered, is it actually against HPD policy for an employee to post racy/nude photos of them self online? She wasn’t soliciting anything illegal, she was just trying to be noticed by professional photographers. If there’s a specific policy against the photo posting then I can understand why she’d be facing termination. Let’s check:
KPRC Local 2 reviewed the department’s policy on conduct. It says, “Employees shall exhibit professional conduct at all times and shall not engage in any activity, including unlawful activity that would degrade or bring disrespect upon the employee or the department.”
Okay… it’s definitely not degrading to Stacey since she posted them, and clearly wanting more photos to be taken of her. So HPD feels that by having a female employee attempt to supplement her very low salary as police officer by modeling is somehow degrading and/or brings disrespect upon HPD. I don’t really understand why. Police officers don’t get paid nearly enough for the work they do, and for an attractive female modeling is a fantastic source of income as a side job. I’ll post more as the story develops.
pointblunk.com 
This especially doesn’t make sense considering fire fighters, who are also government employees, regularly take provocative photos for calendars.