---
title: "Leaked NYPD Documents Instruct Cops to Be Funny Online"
description: "Leaked NYPD documents reveal the police department's strategy for building public trust through funny social media posts."
date: "2019-07-22"
modified: "2019-07-22"
authors:
  - name: "Dan Robitzski"
    link: "https://futurism.com/authors/danrobitzski"
url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/leaked-nypd-documents-funny-online"
categories:
  - "Future Society"
tags:
  - "communications"
  - "police"
  - "social media"
  - "the digest"
---

# Leaked NYPD Documents Instruct Cops to Be Funny Online

![Leaked NYPD documents reveal the police department's strategy for building public trust through funny social media posts.](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/leaked-nypd-documents-funny-online.jpg>)
*\<em\>Image: Victor Tangermann\</em\>*

## Fellow Kids

Leaked NYPD documents reveal that officers are specifically trained on how to be funny and relatable on social media.

The documents, [obtained and published by *Motherboard*](<https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/3k3g3n/internal-documents-show-why-the-nypd-tries-to-be-funny-online?utm_source=vicetwitterus>), reveal an internal strategy to "build, and maintain trust between the Department and the communities it serves." Apparently, the secret community-building sauce is posting a mix of police dog pictures and jokes about unusual arrests.

## Public Eye

The documents, which take the form of slides presented in 2017, provide detailed instructions on how best to make light of [day-to-day police work](<https://futurism.com/nypd-google-dwi-checkpoints-waze>), how to present policework in the public eye, and topics to avoid, like blatant racism.

There's an entire slide dedicated to the YouTuber PewDiePie, who amassed a level of online fame that's now more closely-affiliated with [ransomware and online trolling](<https://futurism.com/ransomware-encrypts-files-pewdiepie>).

Per *Motherboard*, this attempt to create a positive, rosy police-community relationship comes in contrast with a [New York Department of Investigation report](<https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/26/nyregion/nypd-bias.html>) that describes 2,495 incidents of biased policing since 2014, none of which were investigated by the NYPD.

**READ MORE:** [Internal Documents Show Why the NYPD Tries to Be 'Funny' Online](<https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/3k3g3n/internal-documents-show-why-the-nypd-tries-to-be-funny-online?utm_source=vicetwitterus>) \[*Motherboard*\]

**More on the NYPD:** *[The NYPD Wants Everyone’s Licenses for Facial Recognition. How Concerned Should You Be?](<https://futurism.com/facial-recognition-nypd-problems>)*

## Author
Dan Robitzki is a senior reporter for Futurism, where he likes to cover AI, tech ethics, and medicine. He spends his extra time fencing and streaming games from Los Angeles, California.

### Author social links  
[Twitter](<https://x.com/danrobitzski>)