In an unusual dispatch, York Regional Police posts instructional video on peeling bananas

NationalPost.com
July 7, 2014
Alex Jivov

The York Regional Police communications office may have slightly too much time on its hands, judging by the force’s latest tweets and instructional video.

On Monday the police force sent out a series of tweets and a video on how to peel a banana.

“I would love to tell you that there was a ton of strategic planning, high-level thinking and the start of a month-long national campaign,” said Constable Andy Pattenden of York Regional Police. “But all of that would be untrue.”

“We enjoy having fun with Twitter and today was no exception.”

The idea for the instructional fruit videos began when Pattenden noticed another officer was peeling a banana from the bottom up, rather than the traditional top-down approach.

“You see, us police officers are highly trained investigators and even the little things catch our attention,” said Pattenden.

“Instead of just leaving the observation alone, I decided to discuss the revolutionary method by which he accessed the fruit and it lead to plenty of discussion around the office.”

“#openmindedmonday was created, because it was Monday and we encourage our over 23,000 followers to look at things that we might do every day, in a different sort of way. It also adds a little humour to the tweets.”

When asked about whether there would be future sessions of Open-Minded Monday, or even all new hash tag days, Pattenden would not give away any details.

“As for what the future holds, I can’t give that secret away,” he said. “All that we can do is encourage everyone to stay tuned to our Twitter account on @YRP.”

York Region’s police have been known to come up with unusual tweets in the past, educating the public with humorous messages. During a campaign for safe boat operation during the Canada Day weekend, police tweeted out “For those who don’t know a PCOC is not a bird with colourful tail feathers, it’s a Pleasure Craft Operator Card.”

York Regional Police employs 2,200 full-time employees and more than 1,500 officers.