Call the Cops The 27th Most Trusted Site in Public Safety
Chief Richard Mentula of the Ashfordville police department has a PR nightmare on his hands. It seems due to a small technology mess up the chief posted a photo of his private parts to the police department Facebook page.
The Bathroom photo in Question
The community of just over 20,000 has close to 3,000 “Likes” on their Police department Facebook. As the page grew Chief Mentula took notice.
“People were posting tips to our page. Others would ask questions about laws. It was like people who wanted to get into contact with us, but were afraid to “bother us with something stupid” suddenly had a way to contact us. What was most amazing was they were not “bothering us” these Facebook post were good information.”
When the Chief got a new iPhone he decided he wanted to get involved in this Facebook page also.
“I found the camera on the iPhone to be good. So I would go out and get photos of my officers doing good old routine stuff. Figured it would humanize the officers to show them acting as a crossing guard, talking to people, even just enjoying lunch at a favorite local diner. By the number of “likes” and the positive comments I can only assume the people here like seeing the photos.”
But all that changed this morning when the chief went to upload a photo he had taken over the weekend. As he describes it the issue unfolded like this.
“I got into the office this AM and well the of nature hit me. So into the bathroom I went. As I was sitting on toilet I realized I could be productive by uploading that photo I wanted to post. Buttons are different on that new iOS7 so instead of uploading an old photo, I guess I took a new photo.”
Chief Mentula had no clue something was amiss for about ten minutes.
“I was reviewing some paperwork when I looked over at my computer screen. I have maybe 20 emails with a subject line that read something about inappropriate photo. I tried to log into Facebook but got a warning I was banned for three days due to posting a photo that violated their community standards.”
Someone must have reported the offending photo to Facebook, who took it down. But the photo was not taken down fast enough. It is quickly making the rounds on emails, twitter and (censored versions such as the one we posted) on news blogs.
The police chief is taking this with some good humor. His closing thoughts were this. “People in the community and even my officers keep saying I am a big prick, so I guess they now know the truth about just how right they are.”
