This is the viral moment an American police unit patrol their streets with water pistols and visit houses to have friendly water fights with kids before stopping for photos with their “enemies”.
The heartwarming scenes were recorded after the Dixon Police Department in the American state of Illinois advertised their “Operation Water Gun” on social media and the videos have received over 5.1 million views online.
The police department offered to respond to locals challenging them to a water fight, saying residents needed to send a photo of the contestants.
The officers would then respond with a direct message confirming they were on their way for a water fight.
In the videos, officers can be seen with shields to protect themselves as they run with a bucket of water towards a group of children in a garden.
The officers then open fire with their water guns on the kids, some of whom run up to the officers with water bombs.
A second clip sees the officers using trees as cover as they storm into another garden. They then launch water bombs at teh waiting children and begin spraying them with water guns.
The kids return fire with their own water balloons, with one officer receiving a direct hit.
Photos show the officers posing with some of their enemies from the water fights after the aquatic conflicts and the police department said they had some water guns to hand out after the fights thanks to a donation from a local shop.
The fun police operation came as relationships between police forces and local residents have come under stress and scrutiny from the killing of George Floyd and the Black Lives Matter movement.
Netizen ‘Tayill’ wrote: “This is awesome!!!! This is so great the police should do this everyday. I propose we replace all police weapons with water guns and transfer the budget saves to schools and community services.”
And ‘fender6ix’ added: “Brilliant, I think this is great. There’s nothing political here, it’s just the local cops having a little bit of fun with the local kids and building bridges. Well done.”
However, others were quick to label the operation “‘good cop” propaganda” and ‘Mr. Cotto’ wrote: “This is so great! I love this! Don’t play this with black children though because you might just whip out your real gun and shoot them because you ‘feared for your life’.”
Dixon PD held ‘Operation Water Gun’ 
Dixon PD held ‘Operation Water Gun’
To find out more about the author, editor or agency that supplied this story – please click below.
Story By: Alex Cope, Sub-Editor: Michael Leidig, Agency: Newsflash
The Ananova page is created by and dedicated to professional, independent freelance journalists. It is a place for us to showcase our work. When our news is sold to our media partners, we will include the link here.
