Anti-police recruitment posters featuring Peadar Heffron, a Catholic officer injured when a dissident bomb exploded, have been removed from parts of Londonderry.
The Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) is attempting to attract more Catholics to the force in a new recruitment campaign.
Mr Heffron is confined to a wheelchair after losing a leg when a bomb exploded under his car near Randalstown in 2010.
The PSNI said it is aware of posters circulating in the Derry/Londonderry area.
Deputy Chief Constable Mark Hamilton called them ‘cruel and disgusting.’
“These posters can only be described as cruel and disgusting and have clearly been created by those who fear a fully representative police service.
“The cowards who hide behind this fake rhetoric and who ridicule the resolve, commitment and bravery of every person who works every day to keep each of you safe, have nothing to offer our society and should be condemned by all right thinking people,” he said.
And he added that anyone who comes across these posters, either online or physically, should not share or circulate this material further.