Criticism for Warwickshire Police's 'joke' CCTV images

After the comments on social media, the force said it stood by its decision

A police force has been criticised for its poor quality CCTV images of two suspects which led some to suggest they had been "filmed on a potato".

Warwickshire Police issued an appeal over an assault on two other men in Bedworth last month.

But the mocking comments on social media included them being identified as "what's his name and thingy bob".

The force admitted "the quality isn't the best" but that there was "a chance" someone knew them.

Tom Bennett wrote on the force's Facebook page: "Think I saw them in the early 90s on an old video recorder when the tracking used to mess up."

Kas Daj asked: "Did someone use a kettle to take this pictures with?"

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Stuart Dunnigan said: "I could take a better [photo] in muddy water at night."

While Beth Miles suggested they were "printed off an Etch A Sketch" and Mattias Willis questioned if they were "filmed on a potato?".

Those with more serious criticisms of the quality led to the force to send out an explanation to say it stood by its decision to release the images.

"This CCTV has gone to our imaging department to make it as good as possible," a spokesman said.

"Ultimately, we have to decide whether to put it out or not - and as we said above if there is a chance someone will identify the people we stand by this decision."