Young blue line: Police defend baby-faced recruits after photo sparks online trolling

‘Appalling disrespect’ condemned after users joke about new recruits

A police chief has defended her baby-faced recruits after a picture she posted of them sparked “incredibly disappointing” remarks on social media.

Kirklees Superintendent Helen Brear shared the image to X – formerly Twitter – on Friday, showing two new student officers recruited as part of the government’s flagship Police Uplift programme, which aims to draw in 20,000 new officers.

But on Sunday, the West Yorkshire police chief was forced to condemn the responses to her photograph, which saw some social media users joke about how young the new officers looked, both of whom are over the age of 18.

“I have been incredibly disappointed by some of the responses,” said Supt Brear. “Both of my colleagues passed the recruitment process and displayed they had the skills/ abilities.

Superintendent Helen Brear posted the image to X on Friday (Kirklees Police)

“Both will make great cops and I as their leader will ensure they reach their potential.”

While many of the hundreds of comments underneath her initial post were supportive, one person remarked: “Has the pension got so bad that they have to start at 12?”, while another joked: “Think the uplift needs to be placed in their shoes.”

Several other veteran police officers and servicemen, however, posted photographs showing how young they themselves had looked upon starting in their roles, with one writing: “I recall starting as a very young looking 18 year old special ... a steep learning curve, but looking young didn’t hold me back.”

Supt Brear was not alone in condemning the remarks, with one person commenting: “Some people should remember that it was young men and women just like these that went to fight in two world wars to defend our country”.

Another said: “Fair play and massive respect for putting their heads above the wall to take this career on.”

A former schoolmate of one of the new student officers added: “The disrespect on this post is appalling.

“I went to school with Noah, he genuinely cares about making change and helping the system. Keyboard warriors have nothing better to do than complain and do nothing to help the system themselves, stop the age discrimination.”