Two years ago the newspaper group Local World received a lot of attention over their decision to allow local councillors, police forces and others publish directly on their site.

And one year ago Torbay Police hailed the “historic moment” as they published their own story to the local news website, a moment which the Chartered Institute of Journalists condemned as “wholly unacceptable” and Dominic Ponsford critiqued in some detail.

But why bother going through the local press when you can publish on Buzzfeed?

Now West Midlands Police have done just that with their article Nine Quirky Findings From Police Freedom Of Information Requests.

Thankfully, it’s not one of the many misleading anti-FOI articles I’ve written about previously. But it does highlight how ‘publishing directly’ on news platforms isn’t limited to Local World or the local press.

Of course the content is part of the Community section and clearly marked as not having gone through editorial controls – something that other publishers could perhaps learn from.

Oh, and this isn’t even their first piece on Buzzfeed’s Community section: here’s their Six New Year Resolutions For Crooks And Criminals.

h/t Pav Dhande