It is my extreme good fortune to have been asked to take over the Law Enforcement 2.0 Podcast. I have a somewhat demanding “day job” and adding one more thing on top of everything is a pretty crazy idea. But this opportunity was just too good to pass up. Rian Bowden, CEO of Daily Splice (the podcast originator) pretty much gave me carte blanche to do what I like with it. That’s important; after all I do like to do things my way. 🙂 He even let me rename it to reflect the @lawscomm blog name: ConnectedCOPS.

“ConnectedCOPS The Podcast” begins today, powered by Daily Splice. I talk to law officers every day, without exception. It makes sense to have them as my guest to share their insights about what they and their agency’s are doing with social media. And, with the technology available to us these days, I’ll be hosting guests from across the globe via Skype or the like, to gain insights from around the world.

The first guest on ConnectedCOPS The Podcast is Chief David Molloy of Novi, Michigan. Chief Molloy is a master at LinkedIn so I asked him to share his experience with us on how he’s benefited from being on LinkedIn. His comments are not just insightful but I suspect that anybody who listens, who is not using LinkedIn, will sign up as soon as they have an opportunity. As Chief Molloy has learned “you can only read so many magazines…. you have to have that ability to receive this information … when you have that opportunity to get this sent to you, and have questions posed … and these are really high level questions that are being posed … that people are able to provide the solutions to on a moment’s notice.”

Chief Molloy has over 500 LinkedIn contacts. He told us only about 1/3 are local to Novi and stressed that his greatest benefit often comes from non-law enforcement groups on LinkedIn with which he wouldn’t otherwise have the opportunity to connect. He belongs to more than 30 groups on LinkedIn including ones he and I have started together, such as The Police Executives Group. Molloy gets some of his best information from non-law enforcement-related groups, “one reason I enjoy LinkedIn, I love my profession but it’s always good to get an outside perspective, because what we are doing is more about operating a business with fiduciary responsibility… we have to be innovative and we have to try and endeavor in new ground.” Within The Police Executives Group, Molloy hosts the Michigan Police Executives Group as a subgroup.

Molloy also hosts his own television program called “The Briefing Room”. It’s broadcast on the local cable television station as well as on YouTube. We talked about that too. The permanent link to ConnectedCOPS The Podcast is on this blog, up there, over on the left, above the @lawscomm twitter stream.

Future guests include:

  • Gordon Scobbie, Assistant Chief Constable of West Midlands Police, UK
  • John Stacey, Chief of Police in Bellevue, NE
  • Mike Bostic, Raytheon (former LAPD Deputy Chief)
  • George Feder, Former Jewel Thief
  • Kevin Anderson, CEO of Tipsoft
  • Constable Scott Mills, Toronto Police Service
  • Tom Casady, Chief of Police in Lincoln, NE
  • Jack Holt, Digital Media Strategist, Department of Defense

I welcome your feedback about the program and suggestions for topics and guests. Let me know what you think. And all the previous episodes originally hosted by Mike Waraich of Daily Splice are still there.