As many as five New South Wales police officers have been sacked for sending pornography over the police email system, with a further six threatened with dismissal.
The officers dismissed were among 460 police identified as either transmitting or failing to report receiving offensive material in their mailboxes.
More than 130 images were retrieved from the their email systems, ranging from soft to hard pornography to violent material. They breached departmental policy and in some cases the criminal law.
A report released to Parliament by NSW Ombudsman Bruce Barbour outlined the widespread misuse of the Police Service email system.
Out of the 405 Police investigations relating to email abuse, the Ombudsman reported that 40 percent of cases were handled unsatisfactorily.
"I was particularly disturbed by the cultural attitude demonstrated by a number of police who failed to understand that circulating material of this kind is completely unacceptable", Barbour said in a statement.
He has warned agencies in the public sector to adopt comprehensive strategies to combat improper use of email systems.
The Ombudsman's survey of 78 public sector agencies demonstrated that the Police Service was not the only agency to encounter problems. Seventy-seven percent of public authorities and 39 percent of local councils surveyed, reported at least one incident of Internet or email abuse.
