In a letter sent to Memphis Police Director Michael Rallings:

“We regard this activity as a breach of Facebook’s terms and policies and as such we have disabled the fake accounts that we identified in our investigation,” states the letter from Andrea Kirkpatrick, director and associate general counsel of Facebook.

Facebook, launched by Mark Zuckerberg in 2004, deactivated a total of seven fake profiles in connection with this.

“We request that the (Memphis) police department, its members and any others acting on its behalf cease all activities on Facebook that involve impersonation or that otherwise violate our policies,” Kirkpatrick’s letter continues.

These incidents have caused Facebook to update their “Information for Law Enforcement Authorities” page to highlight that police are not exempt from the social networks misrepresentation policy.

“People on Facebook are required to use the name they go by in everyday life and must not maintain multiple accounts. Operating fake accounts, pretending to be someone else, or otherwise misrepresenting your authentic identity is not allowed and we will act on violating accounts.”

To read the letter, dated September 19th, in its entirety, visit eff.org. Ever since the shootings that took place in the city of Memphis, these efforts by the Memphis Police Department have started to circulate. We’ll see if a simple warning will actually stop the snooping but at least now we know that police choose to break rules, too.