Party picture from Swedish Police, gives very mixed reactions on social media.

[Reeve]

Looks like they're having fun to me. That's a good thing.

[Deleted]

What and whom is it exactly harming that the police posted his photo?

Confidence in the police, people viewing them as not serious.

[Crissi]

Like this was posted by another police department. It was awesome.



- - - Updated - - -

Confidence in the police, people viewing them as not serious.

Dunno how it is in sweden, but in the US they are actually percieved as too serious / not human / scary. So showing them with basic human humor actually goes a LONG way to making them accessable and getting people to trust them.

[Socialhealer]

What part of that post was hard for you to understand?

your view point is hard to understand i'm trying to dig deeper because it seems like you're talking bullshit, i want to know if its the outfits the silly poses or your view of "OMG POLICE SHOULD SUPER SERIOUS 24/7"

you could move to america the police are really serious over there no fucking around, and they have a massive following of hatred towards them.

[Deleted]

Dunno how it is in sweden, but in the US they are actually percieved as too serious / not human / scary. So showing them with basic human humor actually goes a LONG way to making them accessable and getting people to trust them.

They're viewed as a joke for the most part, mostly thanks to our "Dialogpolis" who wants to solve people attacking them BY TALKING, "No, don't do that please", "We get sad if you hurt us" and such retarded stuff. People attacking the police should be expected to be met with violence, not them trying to get someone to be nice to them when they attack them.

[Crissi]

They're viewed as a joke for the most part, mostly thanks to our "Dialogpolis" who wants to solve people attacking them BY TALKING, "No, don't do that please", "We get sad if you hurt us" and such retarded stuff. People attacking the police should be expected to be met with violence, not them trying to get someone to be nice to them when they attack them.

Ah. Then I can see the need to be seen as more serious. However, thats usually done though getting tougher on the job / PSA adverts.

[Lenonis]

They're viewed as a joke for the most part, mostly thanks to our "Dialogpolis" who wants to solve people attacking them BY TALKING, "No, don't do that please", "We get sad if you hurt us" and such retarded stuff. People attacking the police should be expected to be met with violence, not them trying to get someone to be nice to them when they attack them.

So...yes. Like I said, it's a cultural thing. The US police force could use more of this, but perhaps yours could use less. There absolutely has to be a balance between people respecting the authority of people, but not fearing them.

[May90]

Reminded me of this:

[Dezerte]

I don't really mind.

I think having a more approachable and friendly police is a good thing. Force and violence isn't always the best answer to resolve a situation.

[Katie N]

Why do they do this?

[Reeve]

Confidence in the police, people viewing them as not serious.

People serious about their jobs can still have irreverent fun together. Showing that irreverent fun humanize a them, which can help to make them more effective at their jobs, not less.

[Kjanaprik]

Reminds me a bit of the official instagram of the Reykjavík metropolitan police, most of these pics are the police just goofing around, tbh i feel it just shows that they aren't overly serious and scary, so they feel much more approachable.

[Deleted]

People serious about their jobs can still have irreverent fun together. Showing that irreverent fun humanize a them, which can help to make them more effective at their jobs, not less.

The police are suffering massive drop in confidence in Sweden, you know. Because they're a joke. Last survey I know about, 42% of them said their confidence for the police had dropped. 25% of the population have close to no confidence or very little confidence in the police.

[Reeve]

The police are suffering massive drop in confidence in Sweden, you know. Because they're a joke.

Was that lack of confidence due to goofy pictures in their off hours?

[Deleted]

Was that lack of confidence due to goofy pictures in their off hours?

The lack of confidence is due to various things, which these kind of things is included in. They're not perceived as serious and as an authority.

But you do you, let the police be a joke. I'd rather have a police that is serious and is an authority to people rather than a joke.

[Nachturnal]

I wouldn't care if they had posted it on their own personal facebook profiles, they shouldn't be using the official police facebook profile for their free time endeavors.

The fact you're even taking anything Facebook related so serial is hilarious in itself.

OT: Can't hate on some guys having fun.

[Revi]

I think the divide in opinions here has a lot to do with how police are viewed in the posters countries.

In Norway, which I think is pretty similar to Sweden on this, the police are already seen as very approachable and human. Seeming more goofy isn't going to make people less scared of them, because no one is scared of them to begin with. It's just moving from "approachable, yet commanding of authority" to "approachable and goofy".

The problems they're facing are entirely different to places like the US. The problem they have here is that people are starting to get the impression that they can't deal with serious crime, and posting pictures of them prancing around in ballerina skirts is not the way to fix that.

[Deleted]

The fact you're even taking anything Facebook related so serial is hilarious in itself.

Because the police are a joke irl. Facebook just reflects the situation that exists irl.

[Reeve]

The lack of confidence is due to various things, which these kind of things is included in. They're not perceived as serious and as an authority.

That should be fixed then. But banning goofy photos doesn't seem like it'll go far to change perception. I mean police in the US take photos like this sometimes, but people generally don't doubt their seriousness of effectiveness. If anything, people think American police are too tough.

I have a cousin who's a cop in Austin, TX. He dresses up in tights on the weekends and pretends to be a comic book superhero (The Defuser, he actually does have a Stan Lee comic about him). I'd post a photo, but I'm on my cell phone. But yeah, he looks really silly in the photos in his off hours. When he suits up for work though, no one doubts he can put a criminal down and subdue him in seconds.

Edit: Here's a photo of him.

[Independent voter]

Swedish police don't have to be macho, police in the US have to be macho, it's as simple as that.