Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2021/01/22/los-angeles-pd-once-relied-on-a-parrot-for-public-outreach.html
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It’s a bad “parrot’dy”.
You’re welcome.
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The bike tags are only mostly useless. I’ve had a handful of bikes stolen over the years, the most recent being about 4 years ago. I dutifully reported the theft and got a call back from my local PD a few weeks later that they had my bike. It had apparently been found abandoned on the street. I went to pick up the bike and it was mine. Unfortunately it was my bike that had been stolen almost 20 years earlier, rather than the one taken that month. It fits my kid reasonably well and is in way better shape than it would have been if I had been using it the whole time.
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“Blue and Gold Macaw Lives Matter! SKWAWK!”
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Stranger Danger, which we all grew up on, is also a myth, so Officer Byrd here is full of bad advice. Violent crime against kids is incredibly rare, but when it happens, it’s family members.
Next he’ll be telling people to x-ray their Hallowe’en candy, I suppose. 
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Officer Byrd only cares about protection of the crackers. Thank you, I’ll be here all week.
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There’s a reason they call it “parroting.”
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I haven’t thought about those PSAs and the tagline in years. I recall them being played a lot on Tom Hatten’s Popeye and movie shows on KTLA.
As I recall from my youth in neighboring Santa Monica, we also had an Officer “Byrd.” Could there have been multiple parrots enforcing the laws in the LA County?
Can’t help you. Officer Byrd visited my elementary school to talk about stranger danger, but it was also in Santa Monica so probably the same policeavian.
Given the longevity of parrots, I like to think he’s still out there, keeping the streets safe and the bikes tagged for all of us.
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You sure that’s not a stool pigeon?
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Talk about exploitation!
I bet he was paid peanuts.
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