A set of 40 Line stickers featuring police and their duties claimed top spot among original illustrators within 24 hours of their release, the Equality for Taiwan Police Rights Association said.
Association deputy chairperson Kao Chen-hsiu (高振修) on Tuesday said that he initiated the project in October last year after seeing work by the illustrator, who is known as Chestnut.
Police morale was low at the time due to government reforms that changed their work hours and multiple incidents of officers being killed on duty, Kao said.
Screen grab from Line
“I reached out to Chestnut and provided the illustrator with 40 to 50 ideas for stickers,” Kao said, adding that he wanted to keep them humorous to encourage colleagues to accept reforms and remain motivated.
Kao said that the project took four months and involved a lot of discussion with Chestnut, as they wanted to create images that would draw attention.
After being rejected by Line twice, the stickers were approved at 5pm on Monday, Kao said.
The stickers did not initially draw much attention, which might have been because Chestnut’s fan base did not include many police officers, so he shared them on Facebook, he said.
Once word got out, they were warmly received, he said.
Less than 24 hours after being approved, the stickers had been downloaded 2,500 times, Kao said.
One of the stickers referenced the past practice of emptying refrigerators at a police station prior to a National Police Administration inspection, Kao said, adding that officers would ask neighbors to store the food, but the practice stopped after complaints.
Another sticker shows the Second Division of the Inspection Office, which often enforces internal regulations such as only allowing five minutes to eat while on duty, Kao said.
“We hope that these portrayals of police life will help people to understand how difficult police work is,” he said.
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