UK cops busted for faking productivity while working from home by holding down keys on keyboard - 26 officers and staff reportedly caught trying to trick keylogging software

""The abnormal keystroke behavior comes from repeated key presses and could be from an item left on a keypad, pressing down one key," GMP Chief Constable Terry Woods said in a statement. "Our communities deserve to see value for money, and where deliberate behavior is proven, you can be confident we will take decisive action in this matter.""

""The data from the FO's (former officer's) laptop shows lengthy periods where the only activity is single keystrokes," the report on Thubron's misconduct hearing said. Before his resignation, Thubron reportedly pressed the H key over 30 times and the I key over 16,000 times across different occasions between December 2024 and January 2025."

Greater Manchester Police suspended work-from-home privileges across the department after an anti-corruption investigation identified officers, staff, and contractors likely using objects to hold keyboard keys down to simulate activity. Keyloggers on work-issued laptops revealed abnormal repeated single keystrokes consistent with deliberate key jamming, and at least 26 people face misconduct accusations. A separate case resulted in a detective being banned after laptop data showed extensive single-key activity, including thousands of presses. Remote work increased productivity and reduced commute waste but also made unobserved time more vulnerable to abuse, prompting policy reversals and disciplinary measures.

Read at Tom's Hardware