Canterbury police show lighter side with legendary Game of Thrones posts

puppy on Canterbury Police Facebook
Police pup or Direwolf? Photo credit: Canterbury Police Facebook

Tonight's season finale of Game of Thrones means it's a dark day for many, but particularly for those who have been following the now-legendary Canterbury police Facebook page.

The page's posts have been breaking away from more serious content lately, with its Game of Thrones posts in particular garnering more than 1000 likes.

The police's latest post on Monday morning about the upcoming season finale of the hit HBO series jokingly asked the public not to call them  with their complaints about the show.

"For those of you who are concerned that it's a short season and feel a bit cheated, THIS IS NOT AN OFFENCE. We feel like we've talked about things like this before.

"Finally, just in case you were contemplating calling us to find out when Season 8 comes out, don't do that. Mainly because we don't know. Because we're in Canterbury, New Zealand. And we're the Police. So again, no." the post read.

Inspector Hirone Waretini from the Canterbury police said the posts are about more than just letting the GoT fans on their team have some fun - they're also about "connecting with people".

"The New Zealand Police are really trying to establish trust and confidence from everyone  in a way that will engage with the community," he told Newshub.

"Its about doing more than putting up pictures of wanted people and stolen goods. It's about being positive, proactive and more light-hearted to get as many eyes on the page as possible, and build up that relationship".

He said it was important for the police to balance the serious nature of their job with more lighthearted stuff at times.

"It gives our communities the opportunity to see us in a more human light which is important. NZ Police is made up of lots of, you know, people who most of the time have a serious job to do. Like everyone else though, our people need to lighten the mood to balance the hard stuff that they deal with on a daily basis. These posts reflect that.

"Also, puppies. You can simply never go wrong with puppies."

It seems he's right on the puppy front, with a post earlier in the month comparing one of the adorable new police dog recruits to direwolves getting a massive reaction from the page's followers.

"So now, in no way as a result of any pressure from our dog handlers, we've made a mid-season switch to House Stark. Because Direwolves," the post reads.

"Although our own house banner doesn't display much of a wolf right now and it's definitely not dire."

One commenter suggested the new litter of police dogs be named after Game of Thrones characters, to which the police Facebook replied "Brilliant idea, that one's going straight to the pool room".

Insp Waretini said it was down to a team, led by national social media strategic advisor Simon Flanagan, that police are able to "do this stuff", and they were encouraged to "go outside the box and reach".

Canterbury police have not received any actual calls about Game of Thrones, but Insp Waretini said considering they did once have someone ring in asking what temperature lamb should be cooked at, it wasn't much of a stretch to think that it could happen.

Newshub.