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

News
By published

"It was my cat, I swear."

Monster hands typing on keyboard
(Image credit: Shutterstock)

The Greater Manchester Police (GMP) in the U.K. has recently suspended work-from-home privileges for the entire department after several officers, staff, and contractors were discovered to be cheating the system. According to The Register, at least 26 people are accused of misconduct after an anti-corruption investigation found that they were likely “key jamming” — using an object to hold a key down on the keyboard — to fake productivity.

“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.” These instances were discovered after the department installed keyloggers to ensure that work-issued laptops and other devices are only used for official business.

“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.

However, it’s also more prone to abuse, mainly as staff members working outside the office aren’t observed by their colleagues and supervisors. For example, Wells Fargo fired more than a dozen employees in 2024 after they were discovered using mouse jiggers and keyboard simulators to evade monitoring software.

Jowi Morales
Jowi Morales
Contributing Writer

Jowi Morales is a tech enthusiast with years of experience working in the industry. He’s been writing with several tech publications since 2021, where he’s been interested in tech hardware and consumer electronics.

9 Comments Comment from the forums
  • KennyRedSocks
    Companies understandably want to avoid this by using tools like screen recorders and keyloggers

    Or they could just review their work.
    Reply
  • USAFRet
    KennyRedSocks said:
    Or they could just review their work.
    In the eyes of the company, Why not both?
    Reply
  • jg.millirem
    But news like this definitely makes it harder for management to implement work from home.

    Remote workers usually employ evasion methods like this because of arbitrary management policies about how long or often someone should be typing, rather than judging employee performance based on their output. Note, critically, that the reporting doesn’t say if the employees were actually underperforming.

    It’s another dumb control-freak escalation path against workers initiated by owners and managers.
    Reply
  • USAFRet
    jg.millirem said:
    Remote workers usually employ evasion methods like this because of arbitrary management policies about how long or often someone should be typing, rather than judging employee performance based on their output. Note, critically, that the reporting doesn’t say if the employees were actually underperforming.

    It’s another dumb control-freak escalation path against workers initiated by owners and managers.
    And other remote workers employ evasion methods so they can just screw off all day.
    Reply
  • Nolandc
    This is just micromanaging... Constant monitoring signals distrust and reduces morale. Oversight should match the sensitivity of the work and the employee’s history. Continuous surveillance is justified only for high-risk or security-critical roles...

    Nothing says we trust you more than a Keylogger and screen recorders..
    Reply
  • KraakBal
    Why UK has cops anymore anyway? They are the most useless people on earth
    Reply
  • Mindstab Thrull
    All sarcasm, cynicism, and the like aside...

    I expect this started because members of the public - friends, family, neighbours, someone - knew the employee was supposed to be working and was elsewhere instead, so contacted the police department, but likely not the regular method. By this I mean sometime in Human Resources, an Ombudsman office, or possibly they could have a number you could call anonymously in case you have concerns about someone in the organization. Enough calls and they'll have to investigate, and then keyloggers and the like come into play. Do I like it? No. But the police force should be held to a higher standard than most because, at the end of the day, when they are involved, it's often because lives are at stake. You can't screw around in a job like that.

    Mindstab Thrull
    Reply
  • bill001g
    Takes only a very small number of people to not follow the rules and ruin a good thing for everyone.

    Many years ago even before work from home was popular the company I worked for allowed it even though few people used it. One individual who was a project manager whose main role was to run meetings seem to never be on time or even attend. Multiple times you would know they were out of the house because you could hear sounds like they were in a store.

    Seems after some investigation they were working at a shoe store they owned.

    Because they were afraid of lawsuits because this person was in multiple "protected" classes rather than just make her come to the office they eliminated the work from home completely.

    She did not come to work for a month and they fired her and she still filed lawsuits. They were going to come and take sworn statements from people including me that were in the meetings when she called in from her store. It was all cancelled and after digging though the public records seems the case was dismissed and she had to pay costs.
    Reply
  • jg.millirem
    USAFRet said:
    And other remote workers employ evasion methods so they can just screw off all day.
    If they do, measurable in performance, not in key-clicking.
    Reply