(NEXSTAR) – A relatively new slide at a Boston playground is becoming the subject of concern after a viral video showed a police officer injuring himself while flying down the chute.
In the video, which was filmed at the new City Hall Plaza playscape, the officer can first be heard banging around in the tube-shaped upper portion of the metallic slide before he’s violently spit out, face-down, onto the ground.
The officer suffered minor injuries and “used his own personal medical insurance” for treatment, the Boston Police Department confirmed in a statement to The Boston Globe.
Viewers on TikTok appeared to be highly amused by the video, with some wondering why he fell out “like a rag doll” or a soda “coming out of a vending machine.”
But Terri Ilana, a local teacher, musician and mother, said she’s not surprised.
“I’ve been trying to tag [officials] and reach out to people in the city a bunch, and nobody cared until now,” Ilana told Nexstar.
Ilana has firsthand experience with the slide at City Hall Plaza: She, too, went viral after posting a video of herself being injured on the very same slide back in May. And while she admits the footage is “hilarious,” she’s still a bit shocked that the ride is open to the public.
“I was just with a friend, getting cannoli in the North End and I saw the slide,” she told Nexstar. “And from far away, I said, ‘That’s huge, it must be a ticketed, supervised amusement.’”
When Ilana realized the slide was in fact located in a public park, she decided to give it a go. Her experience was very much the same as the Boston police officer’s, down to the injury.
“I ended up with a baseball-sized bump on my head,” she joked.
Ilana also admitted that she did see an “age limit” on a sign near the entrance to the park, but didn’t see the posted warning against adults riding the slide. She also pointed out that Boston city councilor Erin Murphy shared a video of herself flying down the same slide when the park opened in Nov. 2022, and even captioned it with a warning to “be careful.”
“I don’t want to be a party pooper. I don’t think [the slide] should come down. I just think there should be a sign that’s a little more honest,” Ilana told Nexstar. “I guess all I would say is, ‘Enter at your own risk.’”
This week, after the police officer’s viral tumble, city officials are apparently looking into the apparatus, according to Boston Mayor Michelle Wu.
“We want all of our public spaces to be beloved and if it looks like we need to make sure that there’s more signage that this is for children or something, we can do that too,” she told reporters.
The proposed signage, however, may be lost on newer park-goers. The Boston Globe reported Thursday that adults are increasingly lining up for their turn on what’s becoming known as the “cop slide” — warnings or not.