At least four additional San Francisco police officers are being investigated for allegedly exchanging homophobic and racist text messages, the latest in a widening scandal that has thrown related criminal cases into question. The discovery has triggered a review of all court cases that could have been affected by discrimination by the officers. Police Chief Greg Suhr said text messages were exchanged on personal cellphones and included use of the word “n—,” as well as disparaging comments about gay people. District Attorney George Gascón said “the use of the n-word is very prevalent” in the dozens of texts. It was not known if the texts were sent while officers were on duty. A previous texting scandal was made public in March 2015 after messages were discovered during a corruption investigation. Officials reportedly found homophobic exchanges from 2011 to 2012 among five San Francisco officers and launched an investigation of systemic bias among the force.
