“As police officers we already accept that our lives are very much restricted and scrutinised both off and on duty - this is accepted to a point. I am fairly content from my own experience and the numerous outstanding colleagues that I have both looked after and worked with that they are all professional and capable. What we do need though is the ability to have some sort of a protected private life without fear of intrusion.

“Perhaps when there is a suggestion of wrongdoing we should look to some of the other professions for guidance as to how they conduct themselves when serving the public. If you detect sarcasm in that last sentence, you would be correct.

“Some things are not everyone’s taste but that doesn’t make them wrong - and this is a worrying concept treading on the already reduced amount of human rights we have. I am not talking about the more common sense and obviously wrong end of the spectrum but there is much more that is subjective. I am off now to hand myself in for laughing at comedy on the telly.

“Leave our private lives alone, leave our private phones alone and more importantly just leave us alone and stop trying to hit us all over the head for the actions of a handful who we don’t want in our job either.”

The Police Federation of England and Wales said: "Police officers are subject to the law, like anyone else. Random checks of their personal phones for nothing more than a fishing exercise would be excessive, disproportionate and unlawful.

“Police officers deserve to have a private life."