Kenosha police use Facebook humor to connect with community

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KENOSHA, Wis. (CBS 58) -- A Kenosha police officer is finding the best way to get safety messages out to the community is through Facebook and laughter.

Officer Tyler Cochran is the man behind the funny posts on the Kenosha Police Department’s Facebook page. His most popular post was one about Girl Scout cookies being a highly addictive substance, and that the department would safely ‘dispose’ of them.

“We said we would take care of any highly addictive substances that are out there like the cookies, and we’d be happy to dispose of them if anybody has those substances and needed to drop them off,” joked Officer Cochran.

The post was picked up by Good Morning America and reached more than a million people after being shared more than 8,500 times.

“I thought that one was actually really funny and a lot of people did respond to that like ‘oh my daughter sells this,’” said Gaby Rios, who follows the Kenosha PD Facebook.

”I personally loved the Girl Scout cookie post,” said another follower, Amy Garrigan. “You know my daughter sells Girl Scout cookies so it was great timing and really funny.”

The post started off as a friendly competition between Officer Cochran and his co-worker.

”He’s like ‘it’s on,’ so I said okay and I posted that girl scout one the next day and it got picked up by Good Morning America so it was on national news,” Officer Cochran laughed. “So I called him up and I’m like hey I don’t know if you were watching the news this morning? And he’s like ‘that’s it, I’m done.’”

Officer Cochran says he gets his funny post ideas from other departments and they bounce off of each other.

A Facebook post debunking the ‘no laws when drinking white claws,’ ended up being a big hit all while sending a good message to drink responsibly.

“We thought it’d be funny to kind of put that out there like obviously there are laws when you’re drinking White Claws and everybody blew up and thought it was hilarious,” said Officer Cochran.

Officer Cochran says using humor on the police Facebook page is a great way for police to interact with their community.

"Everybody relates to humor, no matter what it is," said Officer Cochran. "If we can take humor and somehow direct deposit a message related to safety or the community, it's a win-win for everybody. Everybody loves it. They're like oh man, the police, they're real people and this is funny, but they get the message."

His followers can't agree more. 

"I think it's a good way to go about things, and people respond back to it," said Rios. "There's like a million comments all the time."

"I think it's hilarious," added Garrigan. "I think it's great camaraderie and I'm glad they're keeping us entertained."

And while Officer Cochran says he doesn't see himself in comedy in the near future, the Kenosha Police Department hopes to push this humor forward by doing a podcast and more Facebook lives.

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