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Quebec police raise eyebrows with sarcastic responses to online critics

MONTREAL — Quebec provincial police are raising eyebrows with their sarcastic responses to critical comments on their Facebook page.

One response to a comment on the force’s official Facebook page described excessive speeders as “morons,” while another suggested that bad drivers should calculate the price of a ticket in their vacation budgets.

Chief Insp. Guy Lapointe, head of communications, says the force recently changed its social media policy in order to use humour and sarcasm to draw greater attention to its public safety campaigns.

He said the force also made the decision to respond to online trolls who go to the page to attack its prevention campaigns and encourage what he calls delinquent behaviour.

He acknowledges that some of the recent police responses went too far and says staffers shouldn’t use derogatory terms when interacting with the public.

But he says the response from the public has been overwhelmingly positive so far, and the force’s Facebook page has gained over 6,000 new followers since the new approach was adopted last month.

News from © Canadian Press Enterprises Inc., 2019