A few weeks ago Chinese webuser "24 degrees" posted this photo of a policeman chatting openly to the street traders that he was supposed to be tracking. The photo has since cost the policeman his job. Read more and see the photo.

Patrol cars weren't adequate in keeping order in the land, Sheriff Leon Lott decided. So off to the army he went, to ask for an armoured vehicle fitted out with a machine gun. "It shall be called The Peacemaker," he thought. Read more...

To wish luck to a new business in China, messages are offered inscribed on red banners. But when the business in question is a nightclub and the well-wishers are the local police, neighbours start asking questions. Read more...

A UK police force that got sick of people phoning the emergency services with trivial problems is making an example of the timewasters by posting recordings of their requests on YouTube. Their message: don't phone 999 if you're hungry, drunk, or filling out a questionnaire. Read more and listen to some of the best examples...

A Chinese journalist managed to get access to a stream of images delivered by a surveillance camera located on the roof of a building. Although the camera was supposed to be keeping an eye on a set of crossroads, the journalist noticed that during the night, the policeman in charge was lingering on the windows of a building across the street. Read more...

For the past 23 years, police officer Tony Lepore has been coming out of retirement to direct traffic on Rhode Island, Massachusetts. The 60-year-old ex-warden spends each Christmas directing drivers with a festive version of the traffic warden's code. This year his moves have caught the attention of internet users. Videos of the dancing policeman can be found on blogs all over the world.

 Video posted 13 December 2007.

Canada's federal police watchdog requested yesterday that authorities "immediately restrict" the use of Taser guns (electronic control devices). The news has refuelled debate over the use of the "non-lethal" weapon, which has been blamed for the death of a Polish immigrant killed in Vancouver airport on 14 October. The incident was filmed by a passenger who put the images online a few weeks later. Robert Dziekanski, the man we see in the video, died a few minutes after being shocked with a Taser. We have commentary from an Amnesty International representative and from Tom Smith, co-founder of Taser. Read more.