Restraint urged over posting images of incidents

The force says people rushing to incidents to post on social media is causing "difficulties"

Filming and taking pictures of emergency incidents can mean the "loved ones" of those involved learn about it from social media, police have warned.

North Yorkshire Police said people should consider if it is "morally correct" to take and upload images of ongoing incidents sometimes before the emergency services have even arrived.

The request comes after officers said they had experienced "increasing difficulty" with people "rushing to scenes".

PC Jane Carpenter said that while the force understood people wanted to stay informed the priority remained to safely manage immediate events at the scene.

"Emergency services are experiencing increasing difficulty with members of public rushing to scenes or incidents to take photographs, videos and drone footage to post on social media for likes, comments or judgements, sometimes even before help has arrived in any form," PC Carpenter said.

"If you are taking pictures before actually helping anyone, please ask yourself if this is the morally correct thing to do."

She said while she appreciated the people often wanted information the emergency services informed the public of ongoing incidents through their respective media departments, but their priority was to deal with the situation.

"Sometimes we have to deliver the worst possible news to loved ones, and this made much harder when the news of someone's tragedy has already been shared or insinuated on social media posts."

She said the force was grateful to people who did offer their support at incidents and said they were usually "blessed with fantastic people".

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