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UK police enter unlocked homes, tweet photos

The officers wanted to bring awareness to crime prevention

By Police1 Staff

COVENTRY, U.K. — Coventry Police were on burglary patrol in the city and decided to tweet their findings, BBC reported.

The officers were testing out doors and posted photos on Twitter of them inside homes, hallways and backyards with warnings like, “Stop making life easy for thieves.”

Dozens of Twitter users questioned the officers’ actions.

“If you enter my home like this, don’t be surprised if I use reasonable force when I hear you,” user @craigwalder tweeted.

The police tweeted a response to critics and let the public know they would take all comments into consideration. They hashtagged with tweet with “#socialmediasuccess?”

A police spokesperson said the department hadn’t received any formal complaints.

“We encourage our police teams to be proactive and creative in their use of social media to engage with the public and get messages across,” Chief Insp. Helen Kirkman told BBC.

Almost 25 percent of burglaries in the area are ‘walk-in’ offenses so the public is grateful for the crime prevention initiative, Kirkman said.