BCSO: Detention officer fired for posting booking photo of inmate only wearing underwear

BRUNSWICK COUNTY, NC (WWAY) — A Brunswick County detention officer has been fired after uploading a booking photo of an inmate in his underwear to the jail’s website, according to the sheriff’s office.

BCSO wrote in a Facebook post Wednesday morning that they were aware of a photo circulating on social media of an inmate who was photographed for his booking photo wearing only his underwear. A detention officer who took the photo then reportedly uploaded it to the BCSO Inmate list.

A spokeswoman with the sheriff’s office says the inmate was taken to the jail by the Leland Police Department Tuesday evening and had arrived in just his underwear. If an inmate is not appropriately dressed, BCSO says a jumpsuit should be provided to them but that did not happen in this case.

“We want to assure our community, this is not acceptable and violates not only agency policy, but our core values as well,” the post states. “Inmates, regardless of who they are or why they are being detained in our detention facility are to be treated with respect and dignity. We have policies in place to preclude incidents like this from happening and unfortunately that policy was not followed.”

The officer has since been terminated.

“We want to apologize to the inmate and to his family for any embarrassment this incident has caused, and to our community,” the post reads. “Again, inmates regardless of who they are or why they are being detained are to be treated with respect and dignity while in our custody.”