Police called to supervise spanking

Whatever your stance on physical discipline for children, it's unlikely you'd want a police officer peering over your shoulder while you administer a punishment to your kid.

That wasn't the case for one Florida man, who called the police to come and watch while he hit his twelve-year-old daughter as a punishment for arguing with her sister.

The man, who said he didn't want to unwittingly break the law, called the Okeechobee County Sheriff’s Office, which dispatched Undersheriff Noel Stephen to supervise the spanking.

And it's not his first time either. Mr Stephen said he'd personally watched around a dozen parents physically discipline their children, usually when business was slow.

"It's definitely not something we advertise to do," he told a local TV station. 

"Even though law enforcement has been willing to help out in this situation, watching a parent discipline their child is something that’s done only when a deputy has no other calls to handle."