Scotland Yard is pursuing enquiries to identify the officers shown dancing with Extinction Rebellion activists in London, after publicly condemning them for “unacceptable behaviour”.
Metropolitan Police Commander Jane Connors said she was “disappointed” by videos on social media depicting a number of officers joining an activist party at Oxford Circus.
“I’m disappointed by the video and the unacceptable behaviour of the officers in it,” she said in a statement.
“We expect our officers to engage with protesters but clearly their actions fall short of the tone of the policing operation at a time when people are frustrated at the actions of the protesters.
“We will be reminding officers of their responsibilities and expectations in policing this operation – however the majority of officers have been working long hours and I am grateful to them for their continued commitment.”
Scotland Yard said enquiries were being made to identify the police officers involved.
In the videos, which were posted on Wednesday evening, protestors are seen welcoming officers into a group while chanting “we love you, we love you”.
According to one witness, an officer requested ‘Insomnia’ by Faithless.
Some campaigners have used social media to defend the actions of the police officers.
“This clip was a little moment of fun these officers had with the crowd, nothing more,” the WildlifeCafe Twitter account, which shared one of the videos, wrote. “They were doing their jobs just fine and to inflate this is ridiculous and irrelevant. The issue is climate catastrophe,” it added.
Extinction Rebellion said on Thursday that the campaign respects police “have a job to do but so do we; to get our government to act now and avoid irreversible climate change & ecological collapse”.
Earlier in the week, a police officer was filmed skateboarding down Waterloo Bridge, which has been closed to traffic since Monday.
It came as an Extinction Rebellion founder suggested workers should “take the day off” to join in the protests, which the group said will continue “indefinitely”.
Hundreds of activists have been arrested so far, as police struggle to house all those detained in the capital.
Meanwhile, three protestors were denied bail on Thursday after glueing themselves to the roof of a train on the Docklands Light Railway.