Derbyshire Police are trying to hunt down a lorry driver who gave a woman in her seventies a thank-you kiss on the cheek after she helped guide his vehicle out from under a bridge.
The police force, which drew criticism in recent months for deploying a special drone team to harass lone ramblers and dog-walkers for taking socially-distanced exercise in the middle of nowhere, tweeted that the gesture “would be classed as a sexual assault as the woman did not [ask] the man to kiss her on the cheek.”
“We want to speak to anyone who was in the area at the time and may be able to help our enquiries into the incident. Of particular interest are any drivers who were in the area at the time and may have captured the lorry on dashcam,” they wrote in an online appeal for information — now deleted, as a result of the public derision which they received.
“We issued an appeal for information this morning after a woman was kissed on the cheek in an unwanted gesture from a man she did not know,” the force said in a statement quoted by the Telegraph.
“The social media post drew a significant number of comments that were counterproductive to the nature of the appeal and as a result, the decision was made to remove it,” they confirmed.
They were clear that they have not given up the hunt for the driver, however, adding: “It is important to note that people with information related to the incident can still get in touch with us if they can help.”
Derbyshire Police are alleged to have been less zealous in their pursuit of other criminals, such as “Asian” grooming gang rapists — with a 2011 report by the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (CEOP) suggesting that their crimes were not properly investigated.