UPDATE: Le sigh. This story was a total canard. Looks like the police were misdialing the phone number associated with the deductions, which may actually have been for legitimate insurance payments. So. Lame.

Bless you, Mark Seagraves. The WTOP reporter tips us off to a new scandal from the Metropolitan Police Department’s payroll department that actually involves porn. It’s almost like Seagraves knew my birthday was coming up.

Apparently, at least once MPD officer has been subject to regular paycheck deductions that go to a company called First Chicago, which operates a sex chat line. The officer only recently discovered and reported the deductions, which have been occurring since May 2006 and have added up to around $2,500.

Police are now trying to find out how many other officers, if any, have been affected, and whether the deductions were put in place by some kind of computer glitch in the payroll system or whether there has been a breach of security. The real scandal, of course, is that anyone anywhere is paying for anything related to pornography in the internet age.

Photo by krisetya