A wanted post, including a photograph of Malo Ioane Luafutu, better known as Scribe, was posted on the Canterbury police Facebook page on Wednesday, sparking a barrage of comments.

Canterbury police are getting tough on their social media policy after Facebook posts for wanted people attracted sexist, racist and humiliating comments.

A petition calling on police to stop the "facilitation of bullying on their social media platforms" was started after hip-hop artist Malo Ioane Luafutu, better known as Scribe, failed to turn up at court.

A post on Canterbury police's Facebook page asked for information on his whereabouts. Officers regularly post mug shots, security camera grabs and photos in a bid to find suspects, missing people and fugitives.

The post bought "a lot of attention to the issue". Petition-organiser Ben Atkinson said his petition reached over 1600 supporters in two days.

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Cruel comments affected wanted people's friends and families, Atkinson said, "not to mention children see these posts and comments".

"The police are role models for our children and I hope that by them cleaning up the page it will restore a sense of decorum on how to be a digital citizen," Atkinson said.

He asked police comment moderators to disallow comments, or introduce a "diverse and encompassing" list of banned keywords.

On Friday, Atkinson said: "Canterbury Police have taken our suggestions on board and are making the suggested changes which is fantastic".

"We still have the petition running to send to the IPCA in hopes it helps other regions too. They are going to increase the list of banned words on their page restricting the hateful comments that have been made."

Bullying comments on police Facebook pages across the country, including in Canterbury, sparked calls for better moderation in June.

One alleged offender, who described himself as "mentally ill" commented on his own mugshot: "Not hard to find me I'm not hiding. Can't even do your guys job appropriately and with discretion [this] is another breach of privacy".

On Friday, Canterbury police told users on their Facebook page that bullying, abuse or harassment on the page would not be tolerated and those who broke the rules would be deleted, or blocked.

Police public affairs deputy chief executive Karen Jones said in response to "recent concerns", police would reassess how they post "wanted" people, "while at the same time ensuring individuals are not subject to unwarranted comment".

Jones confirmed the post about Luafutu "attracted a large amount of 'trolling' from members of the public", which she said was "disappointing".

Comments on business Facebook pages could not be turned off, Jones said. This could only be done on group pages.

"Police have a moderation filter running on all of their Facebook pages that automatically hides comments that contain profanities and bad language.

"We update this list of words regularly to ensure all offensive language is hidden. However, it is still possible to troll people online without using profanities."

As this was a manual process, "it can take some time" to moderate hundreds of comments, Jones said.

Jones said police would continue to use their Facebook pages to locate individuals, seek information, provide reassurance and publish prevention messages, while attempting to "balance these positive benefits against the potential for inappropriate, abusive or hurtful comments".

"NZ Police have also spoken directly with the petition organiser to better understand his concerns and how they can be addressed," Jones said.