Durham probes police comments on Obama

DURHAM -- Internal police investigators are looking into whether a number of Durham officers posted derogatory remarks about President-elect Obama on their MySpace pages.

"There's no exact words that were said," Police Chief Jose L. Lopez Sr. said from San Diego, where he is attending the International Association of Chiefs of Police conference. "It wasn't a racial slur, but we're still investigating it."

Investigators are looking into the context of what was written. Lopez wouldn't say what was written or how many officers are being investigated.

Police officials have been looking into the allegations since Thursday after a department employee complained about the remarks.

Lopez said even though the remarks were made on a personal Web page, the comments could be a violation of department policy.

"As a police officer it doesn't matter where you do it, if you provide disservice to the organization, it violates the [department's] code of conduct," he said. "It is a high standard that officers are held accountable to."