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Police officers' 'insensitive act' next to dead body on beach

Two police officers who were filmed posing for photos in front of a dead body have been placed on desk duty.

The cops from Vancouver, Canada were caught on footage last week laughing while taking the images at a beach in Stanley Park, CBC reports.

Videographer Zachary Ratcliffe was passing by when he spotted the pair in uniform just metres away from a dead man on the sand.

The cops laughing while taking the images at a beach in Stanley Park. Source: Storyful
The cops from Vancouver, Canada, were caught on footage last week laughing while taking the images at a beach in Stanley Park. Source: Storyful

His video shows one of the officers smiling and pulling different poses with the body in the background as the second cop snaps pictures.

"I can't really explain why these officers were doing this, but to see them laughing and clearly not understanding the gravity of the situation, and not providing the dignity and respect a deceased person would deserve, it struck me as an insensitive act," Mr Ratcliffe told CBC.

The Vancouver Police Department [VPD] said the man’s death was not suspicious and the police officers were at the beach to secure it off for the coroner.

"I think that the VPD should be concerned that officers feel that emboldened to act in such a way that clearly shows no respect for whoever this was," Mr Ratcliffe said.

A spokesperson for the VPD told the publication the two officers have been reassigned to “non-deployable, administrative positions while the [Office of Police Complaint Commissioner] investigation is ongoing”.

Any further decisions will depend on the investigation’s outcome.

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