City of Columbia issues apology for social media posts
The City of Columbia apologized in a news release Friday after two Twitter posts included photos taken the day before at the scene of an infant death investigation.
Some city departments were taking part in national CityHallSelfie Day, which is meant to celebrate local government, according to the release. The Columbia Police Department was one that participated by posting “selfies.”
{“url”:”https://twitter.com/ColumbiaPD/status/1162110443529351181″,”author_name”:”ColumbiaPD”,”author_url”:”https://twitter.com/ColumbiaPD”,”html”:”&#lt;blockquote class=”twitter-tweet”&#gt;&#lt;p lang=”en” dir=”ltr”&#gt;&#lt;a href=”https://twitter.com/ColumbiaPD?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”&#gt;@ColumbiaPD&#lt;/a&#gt; Officers out enjoying the fresh air. &#lt;a href=”https://twitter.com/hashtag/CityHallSelfie?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”&#gt;#CityHallSelfie&#lt;/a&#gt; &#lt;a href=”https://twitter.com/hashtag/ShowMeCoMo?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”&#gt;#ShowMeCoMo&#lt;/a&#gt; &#lt;a href=”https://t.co/lyD4aR4vud”&#gt;pic.twitter.com/lyD4aR4vud&#lt;/a&#gt;&#lt;/p&#gt;— ColumbiaPD (@ColumbiaPD) &#lt;a href=”https://twitter.com/ColumbiaPD/status/1162110443529351181?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”&#gt;August 15, 2019&#lt;/a&#gt;&#lt;/blockquote&#gt;n&#lt;script async src=”https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js” charset=”utf-8″&#gt;&#lt;/script&#gt;n”,”width”:550,”height”:null,”type”:”rich”,”cache_age”:”3153600000″,”provider_name”:”Twitter”,”provider_url”:”https://twitter.com”,”version”:”1.0″}
Two of those selfies were taken at the scene of a death investigation Thursday at Mcknight Tire and Auto in north Columbia, where the remains of a baby were found in a wooded area.
{“url”:”https://twitter.com/ColumbiaPD/status/1162128293660938241″,”author_name”:”ColumbiaPD”,”author_url”:”https://twitter.com/ColumbiaPD”,”html”:”&#lt;blockquote class=”twitter-tweet”&#gt;&#lt;p lang=”en” dir=”ltr”&#gt;&#lt;a href=”https://twitter.com/ColumbiaPD?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”&#gt;@ColumbiaPD&#lt;/a&#gt; out keeping the streets safe while taking a quick selfie. &#lt;a href=”https://twitter.com/hashtag/CityHallSelfie?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”&#gt;#CityHallSelfie&#lt;/a&#gt; &#lt;a href=”https://twitter.com/hashtag/ShowMeCoMo?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”&#gt;#ShowMeCoMo&#lt;/a&#gt; &#lt;a href=”https://t.co/iQUsGaWxI8″&#gt;pic.twitter.com/iQUsGaWxI8&#lt;/a&#gt;&#lt;/p&#gt;— ColumbiaPD (@ColumbiaPD) &#lt;a href=”https://twitter.com/ColumbiaPD/status/1162128293660938241?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”&#gt;August 15, 2019&#lt;/a&#gt;&#lt;/blockquote&#gt;n&#lt;script async src=”https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js” charset=”utf-8″&#gt;&#lt;/script&#gt;n”,”width”:550,”height”:null,”type”:”rich”,”cache_age”:”3153600000″,”provider_name”:”Twitter”,”provider_url”:”https://twitter.com”,”version”:”1.0″}
“We understand that this was not an appropriate situation or location for these types of photos to be taken and we sincerely apologize to our community, on behalf of the unknown infant child, and to the Columbia Police Department,” Community Relations Director Steven Sapp said. “I take full responsibility for this issue, I am sorry, and I have taken the appropriate coaching actions to ensure we learn from this incident so it is not repeated in the future.”
The city has since removed one of the photos.
We have removed a photo which was taken on August 15 near a crime scene. We apologize for any insensitivity the photo invoked. We have issued a community apology. https://t.co/bT0ct518Yg
— ColumbiaPD (@ColumbiaPD) August 17, 2019
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