Dancing Pikachu Team Up With Police to Prevent Crime in Singapore

The Pokemon Company is teaming up with a city in Singapore to raise crime awareness.

The Jurong division of the Singapore Police Force launched a week long Pokemon-themed crime prevention campaign on Saturday, March 10th. The event, which coincides with school holidays in Singapore, is designed to teach kids how to prevent crime.

The centerpiece of the campaign are Pokemon game booths at a mall in Jurong West, along with an invasion of oversized Pikachu mascots. Kids can get pictures with Pikachu and watch them dance, while learning some handy lessons about crime in the process.

Jurong Point (the mall where the event is taking place) posted a video on Facebook showing six Pikachu dancing together as part of the event. You can also see a sign on the stage that reads "Always Be Vigilant" featuring a smiling Pikachu.

The Singapore Police Force hopes to pass along three messages to children (and their parents) with the new Pokemon campaign:

• Don't take dimly lit shortcuts.
• Don't buy counterfeit goods.
• Don't use your phone while driving.

This is the first time that the Singapore Police Force has teamed up with the Pokemon Company, but they hope to do more in the future. "With the appeal of the Pokemon characters, we hope to be able to reach out to more members of the public on crime prevention," a representative for the police department told the Straits Times. "We certainly look forward to more opportunities like this in the future."

Unfortunately, it looks like the campaign features characters from Pokemon the Series: Sun and Moon as opposed to the Pokemon Company's newest crime fighter Detective Pikachu. With the release of the Detective Pikachu coming in just a few months, it feels like a missed opportunity to not have a crime prevention campaign starring a Pikachu that literally solves crime. As Detective Pikachu is set to star in his very own movie that comes out next year, we're guessing that he'll appear in any future Pokemon-themed crime prevention campaigns.

If you live in Singapore, you can check out the dancing Pikachu and learn a thing or two about crime prevention at the Jurong Point shopping mall through March 17th.

(h/t The Star)