‘Hide & Seek with a Cop’

Last week a local police department in Oregon put out a Facebook post with this announcement:

Hide & Seek with a Cop!

We have created a new community event this year and we would love to have you join us. It’s basically your only chance to run from the cops without consequences!

As elaborated in a news report, the event would involve “armed and uniformed police officers” who would “try to tag teenagers and adults as they run through a wooded park at night”.  The report extensively quoted the department’s public information officer Paul Mattson III, explaining the rationale for some of those choices.

If the officers are not uniformed or armed, it defeats the goal of helping community members overcome fear of interacting with officers as they are, Mattson said.

Also according to the report:

Participants will have to sign a liability waiver, Mattson said. Asked about whether it was a safety risk to have officers armed during the event, Mattson said that officers’ guns are “going to be in their holsters like they normally would, just like if we were chasing a suspect.”

And these are some of the comments that came up on Facebook:

I call it hide and seek they call it resisting arrest

Just asking for a friend. Can criminals play this game and if so do they get to run away Scott free

Nawww, I've seen this episode of cops before.... After a while, you bring in helicopters, dogs, and someone gets maced or shot at the end.... Not playing that game...

So you didn't think about how traumatizing interactions with cops with guns have been? You set this up as a game? Have you actually tried community outreach and sensitivity training?

Intriguing idea, but I don’t think that citizens being more afraid of being killed by cops than by zombies or serial killers is the flex you think it is.

Every time I try to play this game I get nailed with extra charges like “fleeing” or “resisting”

Are you using the dogs?

I have never had a formal invitation before...