A police force has been criticised for shaming a homeless couple online after confiscating their uninsured vehicle.
West Yorkshire Police officers tweeted a picture of the couple on Thursday, after they seized their vehicle for being on the roads while uninsured.
In the tweet – now deleted – the officers said that the driver had been living of the car.
The accompanying image was captioned “#luggagewalkofshame” and showed the backs of the pair – who have not been identified – as they carried away their suitcases.
The tweet, sent from the official WYP Road Policing Unit account, was swiftly condemned online.
Stay classy West Yorkshire Police http://t.co/JCmdFSlpyu
— Paul Heaton (@PaulHeatonSolo) August 13, 2015
West Yorkshire Police evict homeless couple living in their car, then brag about it on Twitter @WYP_RPU pic.twitter.com/7GG439slfB
— Trader Paul (@TraderPaulFX) August 13, 2015
Patronising and insensitive tweets by @WYP_RPU - not to mention extremely unprofessional. #notcool #notfunny http://t.co/2ytJQh4nDg
— poppetpup (@poppetpup) August 13, 2015
Shocked to the core. @wyp_rpu are utter scumbags. Seized car of homeless people and then tweeted a pic to shame them! http://t.co/JSJRa04mYv
— Rachel (@EnfuduZeMengo) August 13, 2015
In a statement a spokesperson for the force said: "This was clearly an inappropriate tweet which we immediately removed from our Twitter account, and we are looking into the circumstances as to why it was posted.
"Regardless of any offences people have committed they still deserve their human dignity and we would apologise for the offence this has caused."
A second tweet, also removed, was spotted by the Huddersfield Examiner, in which officers again confiscated the car of a homeless individual who was on the roads without either a license or insurance.
In this instance they only photographed the vehicle, but captioned the image with “#carinsurancenothomeinsurance”.
