HPD Sergeant Stacey Suro relieved of duty due to online pictures

42-year old Stacey Suro's modeling pictures are getting more attention than she had perhaps expected. Stacey, who is a Houston Police Department Sergeant, has been relieved of duty pending the outcome of an Internal Affairs investigation. Channel 2 News stopped by Stacey's home in Sugar Land to ask her about the pictures but, understandably, she wasn't appreciative of being bothered at home and declined an interview.

The HPD investigation into the photos apparently started last Wednesday when higher-ups in the department learned about the photos, nearly 100 of them, some of them nudes, that were posted in the modeling web site Model-Mayhem.com The link to the photos has been taken down however Channel 2 apparently viewed Stacey's bio on the site which indicated she was a model who charged photographers for her work.

Stacey works at West Side Patrol and is a 20-year veteran of HPD. In a Channel 2 article, a portion of the HPD's policy on conduct is quoted as follows: "Employees shall exhibit professional conduct at all times and shall not engage in any activity, including unlawful activity that would degrade or bring disrespect upon the employee or the department."

I've always found the comments posted beneath media reports to be an interesting insight into public opinion on a given issue. If you read the comments below the article about Sergeant Suro, they're almost all supportive and the general feeling is: "So what? Leave her alone." I have to say, I totally agree.

If Stacey were a "regular" 42-year old single mom and not a police officer, this would be a non-story...the media wouldn't care. Assuming the conduct policy quoted above is accurate, I also can't imagine that this could be considered "unlawful activity" or something that would cause HPD to be degraded or disrespected.  I also have to wonder if this would have made nearly such a splash if it was a male officer whose modeling pictures were discovered.

HPD needs to move on and allow Stacey to go back to work.

Photo credit: Channel
2's news article.

Photo credit: Channel
2's news article.

Update: Channel 2 posted a story today that Stacey Suro has been demoted from the rank of Sergeant to that of Officer at the recommendation of the Chief of Police. She has also been removed from patrol in West Houston and instead will work in the property room near downtown.