It’s a simple thing really, writing an FBML (Facebook markup language) script for a new Facebook tab. That’s what Jeff Brown did. “It’s not rocket science”, he said and he’s right. But still, HE DID it. It may not be rocket science, but with 500 million Facebook users, putting a tab to allow citizens...
Read More »

With the G20 in the city, eyes around the globe were on Toronto over the past week and just about everybody involved locally or from afar has something to say, and they did and continue to do so over Twitter, Facebook and YouTube. The proliferation of social media platforms has give people greater ability...
Read More »

“You gotta win with these guys”, featured speaker and former Dodgers pitcher and manager, Tommy Lasorda repeated that phrase as he addressed the crowd at the California Peace Officers Association (CPOA) on May 24th. He was relating how he sometimes embellished the stories he told his players in order to motivate them to be...
Read More »

Communication, both internal and external, is essential for law enforcement organizations to be transparent, successful, and to build partnerships. Twitter, Facebook, My Space, and You Tube are how people communicate today and for police departments, they are modern ways of building community partnerships. At the Sacramento Police Department we are using these social media...
Read More »

In January of 2008, Chief John Neu redesigned the Community Affairs Division of the Torrance Police Department (CA) by more than doubling the size of the Division and bringing together the necessary resources to forge new partnerships with the Community, while at the same time, strengthening partnerships already established. His directive was simple; to...
Read More »

This is certainly not the “All traffic – all the time” post that you would normally expect me to write. Although, yes there will be traffic stuff in here. This is a post about why I do so much work in the Social Media Medium (SMM) and why you should be interested in it....
Read More »

The Dunwoody (GA) Police Department began operations on April 1, 2009. On April 2, 2009, we created our Twitter account and began tweeting. We really needed a way to quickly connect with our community and Twitter provided that platform. Once we made it past the busywork of the start-up, we created a Facebook fan...
Read More »

The Los Angeles Fire Department is a pioneer among public safety agencies and emergency responders in the usage of social media. The Department’s presence is spread across multiple social media channels including Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Blogspot and BlogTalkRadio. We owe a debt of gratitude to our Department’s Public Safety Officers (PSOs) for their foresightedness...
Read More »

Social networking sites are great for meeting new people and having some fun, but don’t let that fun kill your career. Dean Scoville is Associate Editor of Police Magazine and a retired patrol supervisor and investigator with the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department. Sgt. Dean Scoville has received multiple awards for government service. This article...
Read More »

Dave Briggs made that quip at the Policing 2.0: The Citizen and Social Media conference in England on October 22nd. #polcasm is the Twitter hashtag for the event, which was sponsored by the National Policing Improvement Agency (NPIA). There was indeed much to get excited about at #polcasm. Three things stick out in my...
Read More »