A group focused on British police car crashes has existed on Facebook for quite some time, and a number of the wall posts don’t make it look so bad – the original members (self-proclaimed officers themselves) just seemed to commiserate with one another. Others created a sort of game about injuries and property
damage, however, and not all onlookers are amused.
Depending on which tack you want to take, either blame or thank entities like The Sun and the Daily Mail for letting the wide world in on the secret. Now, the Facebook group – called “Yes I have had a POLCOL” (short for “police collision”) – is being overrun by sightseers, with its membership count slightly over 500 (up from somewhere in the 200s).
Some of the new folks are angry about the way in which incidents were laughed at; one post asked officers to list their “record,” and an individual responded, “i have had two in two days, was going for the hat-trick but got put on the front desk for the day.”
Other civilians have stepped forward to say that the police may be entitled to blow off some steam on a social networking site, given what their job entails.
Either way, though, it looks like “Yes I have had a POLCOL” has pretty much run its course; posts are being deleted, and in reference to the questionable behavior, Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Ian Blair stated, “We will conduct a rigorous investigation to find those responsible.”
