Merseyside chief questions why vandalism tweet was deleted
Vandals attacked a police car while officers dealt with a particularly distressing RTCA chief has questioned why a tweet highlighting how vandals targeted a police car was deleted.
Yobs spat over a police car's door handles and let down the tyres while officers helped a critically injured off-road biker.
Merseyside police officers rushed to the aid of a 24-year-old man after crashing into a wall on his scrambler bike in Longmoor Lane, Fazakerley last Tuesday afternoon.
After investigating the incident and putting road closures in place the officers found their vehicle had been vandalised.
The roads policing unit tweet read: “Longmoor Lane has now been re-opened, thank you for your patience and understanding whilst we dealt with the incident.
“Special mention to the people who decided to let tyres down on the police vehicles and spat over the door handles whilst we dealt with the incident #HereToHelp”
Chief Constable Andy Cooke also criticised the yobs after realising original tweet had been deleted.
He said: “Protecting the public. And then this. Proud of my officers. Disgusted by the pathetic louts who did this.”
CC uploaded a screenshot of the tweet and said: “This was the tweet I was referring to.
“I don’t know why it was deleted. It’s important that the vast majority of Merseyside's law abiding public who support the police understand the challenges my officers face when they are helping others and doing their job.”
A spokesman for Merseyside Police said the tweet had been deleted in error due to a technical issue.
Assistant Chief Constable Ian Critchley said: “We would like to thank those members of the public who helped us at the scene.
“We had a huge amount of support from people in helping us deal with what was a really difficult and challenging incident. It is our job to protect the public and when we arrive at an RTC it is our priority to preserve life and make sure pedestrians and drivers are safe.
“Unfortunately whilst our officers were carrying out their duties there was a small minority of individuals who with no common decency or thought for others, damaged a police vehicle and let tyres down at the scene which meant that we would have been unable to respond to any other emergencies that we could have been called to at any moment.
“It is unfortunate that these criminals have targeted the very people who are there to help ensure the people of Merseyside are safe.
“I urge members of the public to help us in finding these offenders and bringing them to justice – their behaviour is appalling and I know these disgraceful actions of a few have left many members of the community shaking their heads in disbelief.
“I would like to send a strong message to those who carry out this behaviour that we take incidents of this nature seriously, we will do our best to find out who you are and please remember, whatever you think of us, one day you or your families may just need us too."
Last month Police Oracle reported the police inspectorate told forces to ensure officer's social media accounts were "in line with communications strategies" while Gloucestershire Police centralised all police dog twitter accounts.
Also in March, Police Oracle revealed a Met PC was left "astounded" after press officers told him to "rein it in" because he had used a picture of Edward Scissorhands to illustrate a request for advice in helping an elderly resident.
But a Knowledge Media Institute analysis of more than 1.5 million police tweets advised corporate communications to learn from individual officers' use of social media.
News Archive
- December 2023 (3)
- November 2023 (5)
- October 2023 (4)
- September 2023 (5)
- August 2023 (4)
- July 2023 (3)
- June 2023 (5)
- May 2023 (2)
- April 2023 (5)
- March 2023 (3)
- February 2023 (7)
- January 2023 (11)
- December 2022 (6)
- November 2022 (5)
- October 2022 (5)
- September 2022 (6)
- August 2022 (2)
- July 2022 (11)
- June 2022 (8)
- May 2022 (11)
- April 2022 (8)
- March 2022 (3)
- February 2022 (5)
- January 2022 (12)
- December 2021 (1)
- November 2021 (9)
- October 2021 (4)
- September 2021 (10)
- August 2021 (9)
- July 2021 (12)
- June 2021 (4)
- May 2021 (11)
- April 2021 (14)
- March 2021 (14)
- February 2021 (19)
- January 2021 (18)
- December 2020 (6)
- November 2020 (12)
- October 2020 (14)
- September 2020 (15)
- August 2020 (16)
- July 2020 (16)
- June 2020 (18)
- May 2020 (22)
- April 2020 (18)
- March 2020 (23)
- February 2020 (20)
- January 2020 (4)
- December 2019 (5)
- November 2019 (6)
- October 2019 (5)
- September 2019 (6)
- August 2019 (8)
- July 2019 (6)
- June 2019 (8)
- May 2019 (8)
- April 2019 (8)
- March 2019 (10)
- February 2019 (9)
- January 2019 (9)
- December 2018 (9)
- November 2018 (12)
- October 2018 (8)
- September 2018 (7)
- August 2018 (11)
- July 2018 (7)
- June 2018 (9)
- May 2018 (9)
- April 2018 (12)
- March 2018 (10)
- February 2018 (8)
- January 2018 (5)
- December 2017 (6)
- November 2017 (4)
- October 2017 (3)
- September 2017 (10)
- August 2017 (5)
- July 2017 (5)
- June 2017 (6)
- May 2017 (6)
- April 2017 (2)
- March 2017 (3)
- February 2017 (4)
- January 2017 (1)
- December 2016 (3)
- November 2016 (4)
- October 2016 (1)
- September 2016 (4)
- August 2016 (4)
- July 2016 (1)
- June 2016 (5)
- May 2016 (3)
- April 2016 (1)
- March 2016 (3)
- February 2016 (3)
- January 2016 (3)
- December 2015 (3)
- November 2015 (3)
- October 2015 (3)
- September 2015 (2)
- August 2015 (1)
- July 2015 (11)
- June 2015 (1)