Page 7 - IAV Digital Magazine #465

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Photoof ‘Handsome’ PoliceOfficer Prompts Swathesof CommentsonFacebookPost
A photo of a “handsome” police officer has sent social media users into a fren- zy on Nottinghamshire Police’s Facebook page.
The post was intended to edu- cate the public on the efforts of the force’s Missing From Home team in the Nottinghamshire area.
However, the photo of Sergeant Ian Birkin, who leads the team, appeared to dis- tract social media users from the issue at hand.
“Sgt Ian Birkin leads the force’s Missing From Home team and will be working on New Year’s Eve,” the post read.
“The public are fantastic at help- ing us locate vul-
nerable people and we’ve had a significant num- ber of missing people found as a result of public information.
“Although we don’t see an increase in peo- ple going missing over the festive period, we do ask the public to remain vigilant, particularly as people tend to be drinking more, the weather is
colder and the nights are dark- er.”
The post went on to ask people to continue to check missing person appeals over the festive period, but many of the comments were simply in response to the attached photo of Sgt Birkin.
“All the women will be going missing after
seeing this so he can find them,” one comment read while anoth- er social media user wrote: “I’m suddenly feeling a bit lost...”
However, not everybody was amused by the comments, with one reply read- ing: “Come on ladies, this is a bloke doing his job not asking to be ogled.
“Have some respect... People would be up in arms if it was a young female officer with mid- dle aged men making these comments, it has to work both ways.”
Sgt Birkin’s photo is not the first police picture to prompt such replies, however.
In 2016, a Facebook photo
of Detective Superintendent Bobby Singleton posted by the Police Service of Northern Ireland saw similar com- ments made. “Didn’t make them like that in my day,” one comment read while another social media user wrote: “I need to break the law to get handcuffed to him!”
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