There are e-mail gaffes, and then there are e-mail gaffes that can really be embarrassing. Ben Wright reports:
A Muscogee County sheriff’s deputy who emailed personal information of female co-workers using bullet proof vests has been identified.
Cpl. Keith Hamilton, the quartermaster in charge of supplies for the Sheriff’s Office, was given a written reprimand on Oct. 15, the same day the email went out to alert female deputies about a potential defect in Point Blank body armor. Instead of redacting sensitive information on 15 to 20 affected employees, the deputy sent out an email from the manufacturer and an attachment to not only the women, but also throughout the department. The document contained the deputies’ names, serial number of the vests and physical characteristics including height, weight, chest and bra cup sizes.
Read more on Ledger-Enquirer.
I hope the department attempted to delete all the emails from the server once they discovered the problem, although on some level, there’s no un-ringing this bell. I don’t think sterner discipline was called for if this was a genuine one-off mistake by the quartermaster. If any of the affected female deputies feel that the department did not handle this privacy breach appropriately, please get in touch with me and let me know why.