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Learn about the advantages podcasting offers law enforcement @SMILEConference

Until about two years ago I did not know what “podcast” meant. Not surprisingly, because this word has not been around for more than six years or so. What is podcasting? Podcasting is a hybrid word that has part “iPod” and “broadcasting” as its roots. According to Wikipedia podcasting is “a series of digital media files (either audio or video) that are released episodically and downloaded through web syndication.” The important takeaway for enforcement is that “audio files can be downloaded on the web.” This means mass communication to citizens on their terms. But, how has law enforcement communicated information to their customers in the past?

Traditionally, law enforcement communicated through written press releases to pre-determined media planned events. If there was an egregious crime law enforcement may reach out to television outlets to request help or to disseminate information about a crime, event, emergency management concern. Finally, radio was a less common form of communication that law enforcement used to disseminate information and it was usually came off as information from a news report. As you can see the old communication ways are highly inefficient and have the potential to be too closely controlled by limited outlets causing a larger potential for miscommunication.

Why then should law enforcement be concerned with podcasting? For starters the cost of podcasting is nominal and could in most cases cost nothing more than manpower time. Podcasts can be created using a PC/Mac computer and for that matter an iPhone. There are inexpensive editing software programs that can caste a more professional persona on the podcast, which can then be uploaded to numerous websites for FREE, my favorite is iTunes. Here are some of the missions law enforcement can communicate to their consumers:

  • Real time criminal activities that could endanger the public
  • Emergency management scenarios
  • Crime prevention messaging
  • Event planning
  • Police leadership messaging
  • Community policing

The above is not an all inclusive list of the potential uses of podcasting that law enforcement could take advantage of. Paramount is the fact that podcasting is an inexpensive communication tool that has the ability to reach an ever growing culture where people are obtaining their news from the world wide web. I’ll be speaking about podcasting and its uses in law enforcement at The SMILE Conference™ in Washington D.C., on April 8th.

Military iPhone apps have potential as policing tool

The tagline for the iPhone application store – “there’s an app for that” – brags there’s an app for everything. And it’s mostly true, with apps capable of many things, from updating Twitter and Facebook to managing your household finances and finding a good restaurant. Now even military operations can be added to the list.

Ratheon's "One Force Tracker" iPhone app

Raytheon has developed a series of iPhone applications to support military unit situational awareness by allowing soldiers to transmit data and photos over secure communications and call up real time maps to track field operations.

But why should this software be limited to the battlefield? I see great potential for first responders, uniformed patrols, S.W.A.T. teams and surveillance units to increase their capabilities by tapping into the potential of the iPhone, a device many officers already know and use.

Consider this scenario: A 10-officer team is staking out a group of suspects from several locations. Using only their cell phones, the supervisor and team can observe each others’ movements, simultaneously communicate via text message, and access a map of an entire building as suspects move to enter it. By leveraging the social aspect of these new applications, an officer can be part of the force from wherever he or she is located, delivering and receiving real-time data about the team’s position and status while they’re in the field.

In the government sector, use of certain applications is already taking off. Cities like New York and San Francisco are working with developers to create applications to better communicate with citizens about anything from accessing public transit schedules to getting tips on crime.

Law enforcement needs to join the application revolution by driving demand for innovative applications that make us even more effective at our jobs. As mobile technology continues developing and law enforcement becomes comfortable with smaller, more capable devices, applications can become an extraordinary policing tool for anything from crowd control to special enforcement ops.

We can’t allow our satisfaction with the status quo to limit our capabilities – or our imaginations.

Talking (a lot) about The SMILE Conference

It seems the idea of creating and producing a conference entirely devoted to the use of social media by law enforcement has a lot of people intrigued. It was my good fortune recently to have been interviewed by three media outlets in three days just last week.

  • Feb 16th: Greg Friese at PIO Social Media Training interviewed me about the SMILE Conference. That interview can be heard here at his PIOSocialMediaTraining site:
  • Feb 17th: Len Sipes of DC Public Safety interviewed Chief Dan Alexander (Boca Raton), a SMILE Conference speaker and me. That interview can be heard at the DC Public Safety site here:
  • Feb 18th: And, Lt Raymond Foster, at American Heroes Radio and I talked generally about law enforcement and social media at American Heroes Radio Blog Talk Radio:

    • These interviews are all very well conducted by the hosts and hopefully will answer many of your questions not only about The SMILE Conference™ but they were all great conversations about the use of social media. Have a listen and let me know if you have any thoughts or questions.

Why SMILE?



Note: Chief Alexander will be a SMILER, presenting “Leveraging Social Media to Create a Brand” on April 8th.

The Social Media in Law Enforcement (SMILE) Conference will be held in Washington, DC on Wednesday, Thursday & Friday, April 7th-9th, 2010.  Go to thesmileconference.com for more information.

Given the many training options and tough economic times, why should you spend valuable time and money on a social media conference?  With many other competing demands, why should you care about social media?

For most of us in policing, our fundamental philosophy hasn’t changed.  We work in “community policing” organizations and we rely heavily on our constituents to effectively police our jurisdictions, to include getting the resources we need to get the job done.

What has changed is the influence of the Internet and the many sources people use to get information these days.  It’s no secret that traditional media outlets have suffered as a result of the economy and the growth of new Internet-based “media” outlets.  It’s also clear that millions of people are connecting and getting informed through social media sites, such as Facebook and Twittter.

I think it really comes down to two questions. 

Why not leverage social media to expand your influence and reach your community in their own frame of reference?  You go to their neighborhoods for meetings, so why not connect with them online?  Your constituents are there, where are you?  For you penny pinchers, social media is incredibly cheap, so the return on investment is outstanding.

Why put yourself at risk by ignoring social media?  I’ve watched my colleagues try to ignore a particular traditional media outlet due to a negative story.  They always go back, because their residents continue to get their news from these traditional outlets. 

Guess what?  They are talking about you in social media. Why wouldn’t you want to offer your side of the story?  Better yet, why not use social media to get ahead of that media landmine or community concern?

So, why go to SMILE?  You will have the opportunity to interact (not just listen to) with people like you who also have experience with social media.  Most of us recognize the power of social media, but are still trying to figure it out.  

We are at a significant juncture with social media and I believe the SMILE conference could very well set an important course for us.  I hope to see you in DC.

Investigators should take a look at Searchtastic

Here’s a quick little post about a sweet new Twitter search tool that I think, if I were a cop, I’d find kind of handy. It’s called Searchtastic. There are many Twitter search tools available. But I haven’t found another with the combination of tools like Searchtastic, of which it seems law enforcement could make good use.

Try searching Twitter with its own advanced search “feature” and you might come up a bit disappointed. Put in a term or hashtag and it will take you go back only a week and a half or so in time.

With Searchtastic :

1. Search usernames or hashtags
2. You can pull up tweets from weeks and months back.
3. You can search on a particular user and the people he or she follows.
4. Then, click on a word in the search results and it modifies the search by the word. Once a word is in the search results, if you want to take it back out, click on it again.
5. And the clincher: When your search results look like something that might be interesting, export the results to Excel with the click of one button.

It seems like in ten or fifteen minutes, you could design a search, relevant to any investigation you might be working, that’s full of interesting terms and Twitter usernames. Export those results to Excel and cross reference them through your other database engines and maybe connect a few more dots. Useful?

Searchtastic is in beta. On the “About” page, they’re asking for your input. If you have a suggestion that might make the tool especially more useful to law enforcement, let them know. I’ve had a couple experiences where a developer actually made a modification based on my input. It could work. Follow them on Twitter: @Searchtastic

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