A New York man filmed an NYPD officer swapping numbers with a woman on the street, then demanded to know why he wasn’t working

A short video of an NYPD officer chatting with a woman on a set of public steps has turned into a debate about the men filming him. The bystanders appear unhappy with the conversation, and one of them can be heard complaining that the officer is “supposed to be serving and protecting,” according to The Nerd Stash.

The 18-second clip was shared on X by Rain Drops Media (@Raindropsmedia1), which captioned it with a claim that the men were upset because the officer exchanged numbers with the woman. The footage shows the uniformed officer standing close to the woman, who is wearing a white top and blue leggings, while several other officers stand nearby behind barriers.

The woman appears to show the officer something on her phone during the conversation. Meanwhile, a group of men watch the interaction and voice their disapproval, with one questioning why the officer is talking to a woman instead of doing his job. However, the video does not actually show the two exchanging phone numbers, so that part of the caption remains unconfirmed.

Most viewers say the men recording the officer were just jealous

The exact location in New York City where the video was filmed has not been specified, and it is unclear what the officers were assigned to that day. The NYPD does not appear to have commented on the clip, and the officer has not been publicly identified. The men recording also do not appear to approach the officer or the woman at any point during the clip.

Replies under the post largely sided with the officer. “Those dudes are just hating,” one person wrote, while another asked, “So he’s not supposed to have a life out of work?” A third pointed out that the officer was on the job while nearly 10 men stood around watching him, as several others questioned why anyone was filming at all.

Several commenters said they could not understand why the conversation bothered anyone. “Never understood the minds of haters,” one user wrote, adding that people should focus on getting their own. Another asked why the young men were so worked up in the first place, while others suggested the reaction said more about the onlookers than it did about the officer.

Not everyone gave the officer a pass, however. One commenter agreed the men were hating but argued that if the officer was flirting while on duty, he should be fired. Another joked that the department’s motto was “protect and SERVE not protect and flirt,” and suggested the officer was headed for desk duty, and a handful of other replies raised the same concern.

Officers’ behavior on the clock has drawn attention online before, as seen when one NYPD officer had fun securing Taylor Swift’s wedding at Madison Square Garden. Viewers of this clip split along similar lines, with some seeing a harmless conversation and others seeing an officer distracted while on duty. In this case, nothing in the 18-second clip shows the officer leaving his post or ignoring a call while he talks.

The woman in the video has not been identified, and it remains unclear whether the two actually swapped numbers or were simply talking about whatever she pulled up on her phone.

Attack of the Fanboy was unable to independently verify the officer’s side of the story, as this account originates solely from Rain Drops Media’s X post.