Police departments offering creepy Valentine's Day specials
Police Departments apparently have way too much time on their hands and decided to spend some of their bloated budgets on creepy Valentine’s Day marketing campaigns over the holiday.
In Atlanta, the South Fulton Police Department is advertising a Valentine’s Day special that includes limited-edition platinum bracelets, free transportation with a chauffeur included, and professional glamour shots. Isn’t locking people up and ruining their lives sooo funny?
To access the special, the department is encouraging residents to turn in exes, love rivals, and anyone else who may have broken their hearts for things like outstanding warrants, drugs in their car (which would mean police could seize the vehicle under civil asset forfeiture),or simply just breaking the law.
What could possibly go wrong?
This is basically just an open invitation to swat people with their local police department, concrete evidence of a crime be damned.
And Atlanta is hardly alone in this hair-raising tactic. It seems the police unions spread their bad ideas around.
In Gulfport, Mississippi, the police also advertised a similar campaign on Facebook, “We realize how special this all-inclusive deal is and you may be tempted to provide additional referrals. We encourage you to call and tell us about all of your ex-Valentines.”
“Operators are standing by!” they added.
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And in Bath, Michigan, the police said they didn’t want people to forget those “ex’s that did you wrong. “Do you have an ex-Valentine and know they have outstanding warrants? Do you have information that they are driving with illegal guns in their car? Give us a call with their location and we’ll take care of the rest,” the police department said.
These campaigns are not only complete cringe, they’re also really bad policing. Yes, police rely on information from the community to help solve crimes. But incentivizing people to turn in their former loved ones, a situation where many exes simply have an ax to grind and would love nothing better than to get revenge on their former partner, is a recipe for disaster.
Tips to police should come with substantial evidence. These departments are encouraging a game of ‘he said, she said’ merely so they have an excuse to go poking around in the lives of people who wouldn’t otherwise be on their radar.
Police are really bad at actually solving crimes, and with pathetic tactics like this, it isn’t hard to see why.
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