Mike Bostic

Mike Bostic was first very reluctant to embrace social media. It was part of his mandate when he first joined Raytheon in 2008. But he saw the benefits instantly. “My friends in law enforcement started laughing at me for a little while. Until we started to talking to them about the potential applications and the way that they could communicate with their community. The ones I know pretty well aren’t laughing any more.”

In the latest ConnectedCOPS Podcast Mike talked with me about a bit about social media and the importance for law enforcement to use it to build relationships.  While some leaders may think implementing social media is an imposition, Bostic said real leaders should welcome the opportunity, adding, “A real leader wants to explain to people why we’re doing what we’re doing, and how we’re doing it and why we’re doing it. Because if I’m doing it wrong. The best thing about decisions is that you can make a new one as long as you’re smart enough to listen to your people.” It’s a whole new channel of information that you’ve never had before.

Bostic said if he were in law enforcement today, he’d allow any officer in the department to represent the agency but spoke to the importance of education and training “they’re allowed to take lives, justifiable shootings, when they’re allowed to arrest when they’re allowed to take people’s property…. And yet we resist a Twitter site.  So there’s a disconnect there. If we can train them to do those three things, training them to do the right things in social media is a lot easier”.

We also discussed the importance of math and science education for cops as well as a couple projects Mike is working on at Raytheon. Click the podcast button on the left column to hear the interview.