State Police: Executive Assistant’s Autocorrect Turned “Interview” Into “Inbred Jews.”
The Connecticut State Police will need considerable resources to solve a disturbing mystery in their midst. Scott DeVico, a $130,000 a year executive assistant in the Department of Emergency Services and Public Protection (DESPP), sent an email with “Inbred Jews” in the subject line. A mysteriously aggressive and malicious autocorrect is being blamed.
A Jewish employee of DESPP became aware of the email and was appropriately alarmed at its hateful language. A complaint followed after the employee was not able to get any DESPP official to address the offensive language.
Daily Ructions on Friday morning contacted Brain Foley, DESSPP spokesman and close associate of Commissioner James Rovella. Foley said the department is aware of the issue and explained DeVico claims he was sending an email regarding an upcoming job interview. His email program’s autocorrect changed “Interview” to “Inbred Jews” in the subject line. DeVico did not notice the autocorrect intervention while writing the email he sent to two others at DESPP.
A request for documents Friday morning brought this response from Foley:
Kevin; thank you for your request and we are aware of the documents you were asking for. The incident and documents you are requesting are a part of an active investigation.
To summarize, the executive assistant sent an email pertaining to an upcoming candidate interview. The recipients were our Equal Opportunities Officer and a CSP Lieutenant Colonel. While the body of the email was entirely related to the interview, the subject line read “Inbred Jews”
When a recipient notified the exec assistant of the language, the exec assistant immediately said it must have been an auto-correct and apologized by phone and email to both recipients.
The executive assistant notified the commissioner of the email and also requested an IT review to determine its cause and to prevent any reoccurrence.
Regardless of source, we are aware of how painful and frightening these words can be. As a result, and at the request of the employee who sent the email as well as the order of the commissioner, we have initiated an investigation. We have also reached out to the Greater Hartford Jewish Federation as well as the ADL to make them aware of the incident and investigation.
Our legal affairs unit will forward your documents as they become available.
The employee who complained about the offending language tells a fuller story in his complaint. That should be acted on with more than an IT review.
The story continues. While we await more information, go to your email program and type in “interview” and as many variations as you can manage and watch for autocorrect interventions.
Published May 6, 2022.