NYPD asks for Twitter posts of photos of police interacting with public, gets an eyeful
In what is being described in news reports as a major publicity fail, the New York Police Department asked followers of its Twitter page to post photos of city officers interacting with the public under the hashtag #myNYPD.
They promptly did, resulting in a large number of negative images and critical comments among the 10,000 or so responses that had come in by Tuesday, the New York Daily News’ blog The Shack reports.
Both the Daily News and a Daily Mail article include some of the responses, which show photos of apparently startled, bloody and subdued individuals being restrained by officers. “how #myNYPD treats 16-year-olds who say ‘no’ to being stopped and frisked,” says one tweet, which includes an image of an individual on the ground with a police officer’s knee on his back. The city’s stop-and-frisk practices have been the subject of federal civil rights litigation.
“The NYPD is creating new ways to communicate effectively with the community,” said Deputy Chief Kim Y. Royster in response to a request for comment about the campaign.
“Twitter provides an open forum for an uncensored exchange, and this is an open dialogue good for our city.”
