Lancashire Police has come in for criticism on social media again – this time for asking people what they call bread products.

It’s the second time in as many weeks that the force’s conduct on Twitter – or as it’s now called, X – has come under question from other users.

Last week, the force posted about a major criminal prosecution involving drug dealers and car thieves, in which they used a popular meme format to report it.

The latest Twitter thread, posted at 9am on Friday, August 18, began: “'Ah reet cha, it's Friday and we want to settle the great Lancashire debate once and for all: what's the scran shown below?”

The post was accompanied by photos of bread, and followed up with a thread asking if people called the baked goods barms, cobbs, or bread rolls. [Edit: It’s a breadcake, by the way]

 

The final tweet in the thread read: “Or is it just a bread roll? We know, we know. How dare we spout such blasphemy.

 “Whilst we’ve got you, fancy filling out our Social Media Survey and letting us know what else you’d like to see on our feed aside from delicious baked goods?”

It was accompanied by a link to the force’s website which people can fill in to tell the constabulary what they want it to post on Twitter and its other social media pages.

However, the thread was not well received by many.

A user with the handle @nckhnson said: “Why is the police account acting like an influencer account?

“This is really undermining to the police's authority, and even if manned by an office staffer, gives the public the impression of wrong priorities. Please don't post about bread rolls.”

Paul Damien said: "Do the police not have better things to do like solving crime?"

Mark Cookson said: "Cringe, not what I would expect from a police account."

And Carrie Hyde added: "Appreciate the Friday humour, but how about using this energy to tackle actual issues, like domestic violence, harassment but to name a few."

Danny Holland asked if it was a parody account, while another user added: "Need to get out on the streets and get some work done, instead of wasting time post crap."

Dave Pakeman quote tweeted the threat with the caption “good police work”, while a user by the name Spanish Dan said: “Still not received your email address or phone number to report a crime that does not warrant a 999 call! Rude”.

Ed Westby added: “Gotta keep up the social media engagement on the… *checks notes* …Police’s page.”

Responding to the criticism, the police’s account added: “We can assure you that we are absolutely committed to tackling crime and issues that the public bring to our attention.

“Currently, we are running a Social Media Survey to gain feedback on what the public like to see and engage with.

“We recognise that in an ever changing online world, different tactics are needed to gain the public’s attention and engagement, so that they are aware of our online presence should they need us.”

@nckhnson replied: “The police paying someone to tweet memes and jokes is not going to win public confidence when the police are all but invisible on our streets, and when you can't be guaranteed to get a police response via 101.”

A number of other users also replied giving their take on what the bread items were called, with barm, teacake, and muffin emerging as the most common names.

Update - 4.33pm

Lancashire Police has now taken down the tweets from its social media account.

A spokesperson said: "Earlier today we posted asking for help to settle a debate on the correct name for a bread roll.

"Who knew such an innocuous query would spark such a debate! But after being inundated with comments and opinion we have now decided to bring the discussion to an end and take the post down with thanks to everyone who got involved.

"We still knead help to inform the way we engage with people online by completing our social media survey to tell us what they want to see on our channels: https://www.police.uk/pu/notices/2023/survey/social-media-survey/

"By the way barm won."