Without this degenerating into an argument over semantics, by that line of reasoning any police officer would simply be a 'police officer in a small neighbourhood police station' no matter how large the police body is. The warning was issued by Victoria Police members and is on the Victoria Police website, I don't see there being any issue with its credibility.
There is no problem with the credibility of the article - the problem is with the sensationalist/linkbaiting headline. Most people are going to assume upon reading the title that 'Police' refers to something a bit more substantial than the police force of Mildura, Australia.
Why? Lest people mistakenly think that the headline is referring to the organization of all police on the globe ever?
When you see a news article about "Police say [whatever]" it is assumed that a particular organization is saying it. There isn't a global organization of police for it to be confused with.
When we refer to "police" in Australia it's 99% of the time state police. Federal police make up the rest as that typically won't come up in conversation as they deal with international issues.
Australian Police is infinitely less misleading and more accurate than simply saying 'police'. I have to assume all of these downvotes I've received are from Australians or other foreigners making some kind of anti-American point. The fact remains - this is a US owned website and a topic about a US company. Saying 'Police' gives the impression it is American police - when it isn't.
HN has an international audience. Assuming that $THING defaults to $US_VERSION_OF_THING is suboptimal. It's silly to do it here, it's silly to do it with dates; it's silly to do it with anything.
If you'd said that explicit declaration of nationality is better because it makes things clearer and easier to grok then you'd have got upvotes. But because you assumed US police and attacked the title as link baity you got downvotes.
On the contrary, "Police" NOS no more means "American Police" than ".com" means "US commercial website". Similarly, from an international perspective, Apple is an Irish company. If you don't believe me, ask your local tax authority.
