New Zealand police have apologised after sending a tweet that appeared to make light of informing relatives that a member of their family had died in a car crash.
“When we have to tell someone their family member has died in a crash”, the police wrote above the gif.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
The message was published “a day after a car crash in Southland that killed three people, and the same day as a police chase in south Auckland ended with one dead,” says New Zealand news website Stuff.
Twitter users expressed disbelief and outrage almost immediately following the tweet’s publication.
“This is not OK @nzpolice,” Laura Banks wrote. “A tweet like this just lets your hardworking officers down.”
One commenter, Nik Dirga, said: “OK, it’s only Monday, but this tweet by NZ Police already takes the booby prize for social media fail of the week. Tone-deaf.”
Another poster Scott Warren wrote: “Staggering that anyone even considered tweeting that, let alone searched for the meme, drafted the tweet and then shared with the world!”.
The tweet was quickly deleted but not before it was shared widely around the world. New Zealand police subsequently issued an apology.
Karen Jones, the force’s Deputy Chief Executive Public Affairs told news.com.au the “road safety tweet” imagery was “wrong”.
“We feel terrible about this mistake, as we put victims at the heart of what police do,” she said.
“Social media is a hugely important channel to NZ Police and we appreciated the prompt feedback we got from members of our community who pointed out the inappropriateness of the tweet.
“We are extremely sorry and will learn from this.”
-
Europe’s apples are peppered with toxic pesticidesUnder the Radar Campaign groups say existing EU regulations don’t account for risk of ‘cocktail effect’
-
Political cartoons for February 1Cartoons Sunday's political cartoons include Tom Homan's offer, the Fox News filter, and more
-
Will SpaceX, OpenAI and Anthropic make 2026 the year of mega tech listings?In Depth SpaceX float may come as soon as this year, and would be the largest IPO in history
-
Israel retrieves final hostage’s body from GazaSpeed Read The 24-year-old police officer was killed during the initial Hamas attack
-
China’s Xi targets top general in growing purgeSpeed Read Zhang Youxia is being investigated over ‘grave violations’ of the law
-
Panama and Canada are negotiating over a crucial copper mineIn the Spotlight Panama is set to make a final decision on the mine this summer
-
Why Greenland’s natural resources are nearly impossible to mineThe Explainer The country’s natural landscape makes the task extremely difficult
-
Iran cuts internet as protests escalateSpeed Reada Government buildings across the country have been set on fire
-
US nabs ‘shadow’ tanker claimed by RussiaSpeed Read The ship was one of two vessels seized by the US military
-
How Bulgaria’s government fell amid mass protestsThe Explainer The country’s prime minister resigned as part of the fallout
-
Femicide: Italy’s newest crimeThe Explainer Landmark law to criminalise murder of a woman as an ‘act of hatred’ or ‘subjugation’ but critics say Italy is still deeply patriarchal
