Mission Accomplished: Troy Getting A Police Cat

TROY (WWJ) - It's the fuzz! Troy police have won the internet with their peculiar Twitter campaign to get a cat.

The Troy Police Department said it would adopt a "police cat" if it could amass 10,000 Twitter followers (up from 4,000-something when the endeavor began) — and they exceeded that goal Tuesday morning.

Troy Police Officer John Julian told WWJ Newsradio 950 it's a great day for the department and the community. He made it clear that it's not just a joke.

"We are vetting several candidates for our police cat," Julian said. "Once we identify who that cat will be, then we'll start bringing them on board and finding out who they'll be living with, and seeing how they can assist us with our community outreach programs and being part of the police department's Feline Unit."

The campaign has inspired a lot of memes, a lot of gifs and a lot of laughs over the last few days.

All fun aside, Officer Julian said the campaign was a great way to reach out to the community, and beyond.

"Normally when someone meets the police it's not under the best circumstance — maybe when they're getting pulled over or when there's an incident that happens," Julian said. "But in this case it's just getting to know the police department as people, not just necessarily as police officers; that we can have fun as well. You know, that we care about the community and anything that we can do to engage the community, we're happy to do it."

No word yet on whether the new guy will get his paws on a sergeant position.