#myNYPD Twitter callout backfires for New York police department

When the New York police department invited people to tweet pictures of their dealings with 'New York's finest' with the hashtag #myNYPD, what could possibly have gone wrong?

The attempt at public outreach, however, backfired spectacularly when users flooded Twitter with hundreds of photos of police brutality during Occupy Wall Street, one of an 84-year-old man brutalised for jaywalking - and even a dog being frisked.

By midnight on Tuesday, more than 70,000 people had tweeted about police brutality, ridiculing the NYPD for a social media disaster and recalling the names of people shot dead by police.

Best part of #myNYPD = pics of dogs being frisked http://ift.tt/1kZs7dq

- Elif Batuman (@BananaKarenina) April 23, 2014

Police officials declined to respond to questions about the negative comments, which were being posted at a rate of 10,000 per hour, or say who was behind the Twitter idea. But they did release a short statement.

'The NYPD is creating new ways to communicate effectively with the community,' Kim Royster, an NYPD spokeswoman told the New York Daily News. 'Twitter provides an open forum for an uncensored exchange and this is an open dialogue good for our city.'

The request for pictures, on the @NYPDNews Twitter page, had said: 'Do you have a photo w/ a member of the NYPD? Tweet us & tag it #myNYPD,' the message read. 'It may be featured on our Facebook.'

It prompted a flood pictures of officers mistreating people and old newspaper headlines about unarmed people being shot dead by police. It also sparked similar hashtag trends - including #myLAPD - and attracted international attention.

Not all the posts were negative. JP Quinn, 40, tweeted a picture from inside the old Yankee Stadium with his brother Michael, 38, who is a detective in Brooklyn South. 'I like when they make public efforts like this. It's a shame that it blew up like this,' Quinn told the Daily News. 'I just assumed it would be all roses, like whoever came up with that for the NYPD.'

Cops Got Everyone to Tweet Photos of Police Brutality Thanks to Their Failed #myNYPD Hashtag http://t.co/5b0rlKO5ZO http://ift.tt/1jGVaj7

- VICE (@VICE) April 23, 2014

The NYPD tried to make the best of a botched job by retweeting all the favourable photos.

Last year, Wall Street giant JP Morgan was at the centre of a social media storm when it invited Twitter users to send questions to an executive using the hashtag #AskJPM. The bank was deluged with vitriol. More than 8,000 responses were sent within a six-hour period, two-thirds of which were negative.