Chief Defends Department After Humorous Tweet Is Declared ‘Offensive’

West Seneca, NY – The West Seneca police chief defended his department’s lighthearted approach to social media and said they didn’t mean to offend anybody with the joking chicken and waffles post made on Saturday.

The Wegmans grocery store on Orchard Park Road sent dinner to the officers at the West Seneca Police Department on Feb. 20, WGRZ reported.

The department, which regularly posts humorous memes and enjoys a light-hearted banter with residents via social media, thanked Wegmans for the treat via Twitter.

“We’d like to thank @Wegmans Orchard Park Rd for donating this huge meal of fried chicken and waffles and they even dropped it off to the station so we didn’t have to run into all of our ex-arrests in there on a Saturday afternoon,” the West Seneca Police Department wrote in a since-deleted tweet, according to WGRZ.

The police department meant for the post to be funny but some community members responded with outrage.

In case anyone missed it – the West Seneca Police had this little tweet up on its profile for a few hours today. pic.twitter.com/XTdjHp1mtX

— Hyperactive Knucklehead Ninja (@lyssexplnsitall) February 21, 2021

So the West Seneca police deleted the tweet, WGRZ reported.

West Seneca Police Chief Daniel Denz confirmed the post had been written by his department in a statement on Monday.

“Yes it was, and we immediately took it down when we discovered the intent of the post was being misinterpreted by some of the readers, and through this misunderstanding, they found it offensive,” Chief Denz said.

“We actively engage in social media platforms and our post have seen widespread approval by mixing serious content with a measure of lightheartedness,” the police chief continued. “In this case we apparently missed the mark with some of our followers and we took immediate steps to remove the post.”

“Going forward, we will vet our posts more stringently so that the opportunity for such misunderstandings are lessened in the future,” he added.

Additionally, I asked the Chief if any disciplinary action would be take, or a further review of the departments social media policy would be considered. @wgrz

Here is his second response that he emailed to me: pic.twitter.com/U0Rju7LTGD

— Nate Benson (@natebenson) February 22, 2021

But Chief Denz told WGRZ that the person responsible for posting the “offensive” tweet would not face any disciplinary action for it.

He said there was “absolutely no intent to offend anyone or misrepresent the Department.”

The police chief said they would take a look at their department’s social media policy to see if it needed to be changed, WGRZ reported.

“We constantly review all of our policies in order to improve our service. As far as this particular matter, we will be conducting a review of our social media policy and make adjustments where we deem necessary,” Chief Denz said.

West Seneca police have developed a following of almost 14,000 Twitter users with their comical, meme-driven approach to sharing information with the public, WGRZ reported.