Robin Cheeley isn’t in the habit of checking the Greensboro Police Department’s social media channels. But one weekend last month, as seems to happen every few weeks now, it became unavoidable.
“We’re going to try something brand new on our page!” the department’s account posted on Facebook and X (formerly Twitter) on April 11. “Happy Attention Seeking Saturday!”
“Up first is Michael, who publicly commented on most of our posts within one hour, calling us all sorts of names,” the department posted. “Thank you for your comments (some of which we could not share due to language) and we’re glad that the internet is working again in your basement. Here’s the attention you wanted!”
The post included a series of examples of the comments (“Is there any such thing as a good cop? Why don’t the ‘good’ pigs arrest the criminal ones?”) along with the man’s full name and photo.
Patrick DeSota, the department’s mid-30s social media manager, seemed to sense it was a bad idea even while making the post.
“This will either work or we’re going to have a meeting with management on Monday and be told never to do it again,” he wrote. “We’ll cross that bridge when we get there.”
It didn’t take until Monday. The post drew a firestorm of complaints in just a few hours, leading the department to remove it and apologize the next day.
“The post was not representative of the community standards for this forum or of the respect we have for our community,” the department posted. “Each person who engages with GPD should be able to do so in a manner that is protected by these standards.”
The department also posted an apology from DeSota, without naming him.
“I personally would like to apologize as that post came from me,” it read. “I write most of these and take full responsibility, good or bad, for the outcome.”
The department said it has launched an internal review but has declined further comment on the matter.
Cheeley was disappointed, but she wasn’t surprised.
“For the last couple of years, every time I see something from them, it’s something that’s inappropriate,” Cheeley said. “Especially from a public entity.”
Cheeley is a veteran journalist and communications professional whose company, WriteRight, advises people and companies on social media strategy and crisis communications. The post was a prime example of what she tells clients not to do, she said. Unfortunately, it’s the kind of post many have come to expect from the Greensboro Police Department.
Fart jokes. Professional wrestling GIFs. Mocking people who have been arrested or have drug problems. Flippant references to police violence. Provocative snark and chest-thumping bravado in the face of criticism from city residents.
The shift in the department’s online personality, palpable since DeSota took the reins two years ago, has been enormously popular. The department now has more than 200,000 followers on Facebook, nearly 28,000 on X, and 24,000 on Instagram. It sold out a run of T-shirts featuring the meme-speak, DeSota-coined catch-phrase “Drink some choccy milk, have a little snacky snack, and don’t crime.”
But community members, social media experts, and some within the department itself are questioning the approach. While social media can be a powerful tool for community building and public safety, chasing viral Internet popularity is risky.
The negative attention comes at a particularly sensitive time for the department. A new police chief, Kamran Afzal, will take the helm May 13 after a hiring process some residents say lacked transparency and accountability.
DeSota, for his part, seems to be steering into the controversy.
‘They Can Get Over It’
Two weeks after the Greensboro Police Department removed his post and launched a review, DeSota announced his return in dramatic fashion.
“We’re backkkkk!” he wrote on April 27, above a GIF of pro-wrestler The Undertaker rising from a coffin. “Let’s have some fun, shall we? ”
He described his brief absence as being “in time out.”
When a Facebook user suggested the city attorney’s office might question his return, DeSota had a simple reply.
“They can get over it.”
“Good news: The social media team is back online,” he wrote in a post the following day. “Bad news: There is now a policy named after us. Tahh Dahhhhh…”
The Assembly reached out to the department for a copy of the new policy. Annette Ayers, the department’s public information manager, said the episode has prompted “a number of recent conversations about guidelines, which remain a work in progress,” but no new policy actually exists.
The posts were reminiscent of radio shock jock Howard Stern, who famously mocked his employers and their warnings to the cheers of his ever-growing radio audience.
DeSota, who studied broadcast journalism at East Carolina University and has a background as a radio personality, has spent the last two years crafting a similar online persona.
Multiple posts refer to his bosses telling him to “cool it” and his refusal to, or thumbing his nose at city residents who criticize him. He has publicly joked with social media managers from other police departments about competing for who can be referred to HR most often. He has copied other departments’ social media jokes word-for-word, only acknowledging they are someone else’s work when called out on it publicly.
“Haters gonna hate us and we’re here to stay,” he posted in February. “You think we have thin skin and will just run when someone says something negative? We have a small violin and can play it if you dislike us.”
DeSota did not reply to multiple requests for an interview. The department’s leadership also declined. An “internal investigation” continues, Ayers said, and “leadership intends to wait until a more appropriate time to address further media inquiries.”
“The department’s social media is one of the many ways we engage with our community,” Ayers said. “And we want to continue to do that in a way that appeals to residents and balances the important need-to-know information with the lighthearted posts people love.”
A number of the department’s social media posts are undeniably jovial—photos of officers participating in the viral “6-7” trend, jokes about loving donuts, posts poking fun at the sheer number of Dollar General and mattress stores all over the city.
Law enforcement agencies across the country have adopted a softer, more human tone on social media to try to ease tensions over policing, said Shannon McGregor, a UNC-Chapel Hill professor and principal investigator at the Center for Information, Technology, and Public Life. After Minneapolis police murdered George Floyd in 2020 and a national racial reckoning followed, the strategy made a lot of sense.
But leaning too far into the way people speak and behave online can be dangerous for a police department, McGregor said—and can risk causing further division.
“When I looked at this department’s accounts, the first thing I thought, honestly, is ‘Sir, this is not a Wendy’s.’” (The popular fast-food chain has become famous for its comic, sometimes caustic social media posts.)
That brand of online posting is fine if you’re selling hamburgers and fries, McGregor said. Law enforcement agencies are not.
Americans have become used to President Donald Trump using social media to aim profanity-laden insults at everyone from world leaders to late-night comedians, McGregor said, blurring the lines of what is appropriate. Government offices and federal law enforcement agencies are now communicating online in ways that would have been considered undignified—even legally actionable—just a few years ago.
The department and city government have pointed to the GPD social media accounts’ popularity—with followers from all over the country and beyond—as evidence the approach is working. They’ve said less about local residents who have taken to online forums like Facebook and Reddit to question posts.
While a tonal shift can build bridges, research shows the way police departments go about it can actually have the opposite effect, experts said.
“People tend to over-value things that they agree with and already think,” said Amanda Sturgill, an Elon University journalism professor whose work examines the impact of social media. “They tend to undervalue things that disagree with them.”
People who already like the police will like the posts, she said, but “if you think this approach is making inroads into communities that are sometimes harder for police to reach, that’s generally not going to be the case.”
It can also further divide communities, she said. Social media algorithms reward commenter squabbling as “engagement,” boosting the number of people who see controversial posts, Sturgill said. A single post that goes over the line can erase the good work of 100 positive posts, she said, because so many more people see it.
Social media is both high-risk and high-reward for government agencies, said Karen Lindsey, an assistant professor of strategic communications at Elon.
“It’s really important to think about your goals for being present on social media,” Lindsey said. “And then, before you post anything, decide if it is aligning with those goals. Is your goal laughs and likes? Is it something larger?”
The GPD’s current directive on social media says all department members posting for professional purposes shall “conduct themselves at all times as representatives of the department and, accordingly, shall adhere to all department standards of conduct and observe conventionally accepted protocols and proper decorum.”
Beyond Decorum
‘Decorum’ is a subjective term, said Cheeley, the writer and social media consultant. A series of GPD posts referencing flatulence might offend some and not others, depending on the context.
But as a Greensboro resident and a Black woman, she said, she finds a number of DeSota’s posts not just in poor taste, but harmful to the community’s relationship with its police.
“There are some things that have been posted that I do not believe you can justify,” she said.
“Some of y’all are like ‘free my boy,’ expecting us to be like ‘aww ok,’” the department’s social media channels posted on April 8. The post drew immediate criticism. The department’s account responded by going after critics.
“You sound like when you show up to a party, they shut it down and leave,” the account responded to one critical comment on X.
For Greensboro’s Black residents, who have lived through decades of tension with police, Cheeley said the post was particularly insulting. Hers is one of many Black families, she said, where people have been wrongfully detained and later released without charges. Why would the department’s social media make a joke of that? Aren’t people entitled to a presumption of innocence until proven guilty?
“That wasn’t even the worst one,” Cheeley said.
“You can tell a lot about a man by the way dogs react to him,” the department’s social media channels posted in October of last year. “For instance, if the police K9 is biting him, he may not be the right one.”
The posts returned to the theme in January.
“Just know that if you send us on a foot chase in this snow storm, our four-legged fur rockets will gladly take you down in the snow to ‘play,’” the department posted.
The violent use of dogs evokes the brutality directed at Black people by slave catchers and by police during the Civil Rights Movement. Jokes about it are beyond tone-deaf, Cheeley said.
The Assembly spoke to several Black Greensboro police officers this month, from the patrol level to command. They asked not to be identified so that they could discuss the social media posts candidly while the internal review is ongoing.
“I will say the person making these posts uses a lot of African American vernacular for a white guy,” one Black patrol officer said. “And he’s doing it while joking about things that a white guy is not going to joke about in front of Black people, is how I would put it. A white guy making these jokes about the community, about people who we are policing, is not a good look.”
Some of the posts reflect humor cops use among themselves, one officer said. But DeSota is not a cop and is not responsible for community policing. He may not understand how public messages attributed to the entire department might make their work more difficult.
“It’s not ‘we’ and ‘us’ when you’re making jokes about people in the community we have enough trouble building trust with,” the officer said. “It’s you making jokes and it’s us having to do a job that’s hard enough as it is.”
A higher ranking Black officer said there have been internal discussions about the appropriateness of DeSota’s posts. But the accounts’ popularity has, so far, insulated him from real consequences.
“If you think that anybody in this department can actually talk to their boss the way that he says he does, you’re kidding yourself,” the officer said. “When I read that his bosses want him to chill out or think he shouldn’t be doing this, and he doesn’t care cause he does what he wants? That’s not reality. That’s his own alternate comedy reality, but he’s presenting it to the public like this is how this department functions. It’s embarrassing.”
Another Black patrol officer said the popularity of the accounts shouldn’t be the last word on the matter.
“Joe Rogan is popular,” the officer said. “Bill Maher is popular. We don’t do what they do … People have to trust us and believe we are on their side.”
The officer described feeling sick when reading the posts referencing police dogs.
“We’re going to be in a situation out there and K-9s are going to be involved,” the officer said. “And someone’s going to get hurt. And there’s going to be an investigation. And there’s going to be a lawsuit. And tweets and jokes about this are not going to help in court.”
Searching for Balance
As the city awaits the arrival of its new police chief, City Manager Nathaniel “Trey” Davis addressed the controversy in a statement to The Assembly last week.
“We understand that a recent social media post missed the mark and did not reflect the standards our community expects from us,” said Davis, who was a Greensboro Police officer for more than 20 years. “We take that feedback seriously.”
“The post was removed, and we have addressed the matter internally,” Davis said. “While personnel matters are confidential under North Carolina law, we want the public to know we are taking appropriate steps to ensure this does not happen again.”
“Our goal is to inform, engage, and build trust with the community,” Davis said. “Humor can be part of that, but it must always be appropriate and respectful. We recognize the importance of that balance and are reviewing our processes to strengthen oversight moving forward.”
Greensboro city council members told The Assembly that they don’t want to completely abandon a lighter approach from a department that has benefited from it. But they do need a course correction.
“I think some of it is really fun and humorous,” said Mayor Marikay Abuzuaiter. “I like that they can have fun and that maybe the community sees our police department in a different light because of that. And if it builds a bigger audience, then that bigger audience is seeing posts about serious things, in emergencies where we need that community attention.”
But it’s a fine line, she said.
“You don’t ever want to offend people with it,” she said. “You have to know where that line is, and you have to listen to feedback. You can’t just say, ‘It’s popular, so we don’t have to worry about that.’ You still have to represent the department well.”
Some reflection is appropriate, said City Council Member Hugh Holston. Humor may have a broader reach, Holston said, and can help with recruitment. But it has to be done carefully.
Taking down the post and issuing an apology indicates that “in this instance it went too far,” Holston said.
Strengthening social media policy may offer clarity and more guardrails, said Council Member Cecile Crawford.
“Maybe if he feels attacked, and there’s no real policy around that, why wouldn’t he think that’s it’s a good idea to clap back?” Crawford said of DeSota. “Especially if he’s coming from a radio and a comedy background. But the way that a comedian deals with a heckler isn’t necessarily the way we want our police department doing things.”
Council Member Irving Allen came to local government after years as an activist around policing in Greensboro. Social media can be a powerful tool, he said. Humor can be part of that, but it shouldn’t be the end goal.
“Service should be our focus,” he said. “Let our service be our outreach rather than our social media, and our social media can reflect that.”