Twitter regularly blows up during major sporting events, with fans digitally posting reactions, arguments and wiseacre remarks in response to the real world action. But you don't typically see official law enforcement accounts chiming in with their own two cents.
That's exactly what the Staffordshire Police did during Sunday's Euro 2012 quarterfinal match between England and Italy, though. The central England police department's unexpected stream of sarcastic, partisan tweet-puns became a hit with many fans, and stories of the cheeky posts spread around web the after the match.
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England was eliminated from Europe's every-four-years soccer championship on penalty kicks -- the team's curse -- and for many fans the tweets from @StaffsPolice may have been the best part of the match. Some of the posts had a funny take on national team fandom:
Balotellishould be in the Olympics - Italian diving team
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— Staffordshire Police (@StaffsPolice) June 24, 2012
The department also retweeted messages of support and amusement from followers. But it's most popular tweets used soccer and crime fighting to deliver a series of pun-based warnings and messages:
Change of tactics for England - seems to be working. Our tactics are to stop violence!
— Staffordshire Police (@StaffsPolice) June 24, 2012
Great tackle by Terry, we'll be tackling repeat offenders
— Staffordshire Police (@StaffsPolice) June 24, 2012
Action at both ends, may be penalties - don't get a penalty from us for being drunk and disorderly!
— Staffordshire Police (@StaffsPolice) June 24, 2012
This year's tournament has had a strong digital emphasis. Twitter last week launched a curated destination page to corral relevant Euro 2012 tweets from around the web, building off a similar feature it announced for a NASCAR race in May. UEFA -- the governing body of European soccer that puts on the Euro tournament -- also recently told us how digital and social media have changed the way it covers the event. And England star Wayne Rooney shared a rather curious Spotify playlist before his first appearance back from suspension.
Do you think the tweets from @StaffsPolice were a creative example of how to use social media well -- or should the department's time have been spent elsewhere? Share your opinion in the comments.
Thumbnail image courtesy iStockphoto, mikkelwilliam
This story originally published on Mashable here.
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