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I’m going to SMILE, and you should too!

For just under a year I have been working hard at creating a loud and reliable voice with Social Media to communicate effectively with the citizens of Toronto. My passing interest in SM has developed into a passion for how to become a more effective communicator. I will be among the presenters at SMILE, delivering the topic “Using Minimal Resources to Maximize Results”.

There is a known risk for Law Enforcement individuals and agencies to use technology without knowing the nuances and principles for efficacy, efficiency and effectiveness. Done wrong, Social Media can have disastrous results. Done right, the results have outputs that are minimal with outcomes that are enormous.

That is exactly what The SMILE Conference is providing. Thousands of hours of experience in communications, Social Media and Law Enforcement are merging in one place.

I actively searched for and found experts to assist me as I began taking small steps in the use of Social Media. Most had nothing to do with Law Enforcement, but were well versed in SM. Over time, I found other Law Enforcement individuals who were speaking as individuals but not representing agencies. Finally agencies and individuals began to show up. Through all of the learning I was able to learn bits and pieces from all.

When I started out, I would have loved the opportunity to have gone to one place and learned everything I know now in two days, which literally took me months to put together.

That is exactly what The SMILE Conference™ is providing. Thousands of hours of experience in communications, Social Media and Law Enforcement are merging in one place. Sharing the best of what works, what doesn’t, what’s new and what’s necessary.

If you are in Law Enforcement and supervise or engage in strategic communications you need to be at the SMILE Conference. I’ll be there with my note pad learning from the best, will you?

Note: The early bird rate for the SMILE conference lasts until February 15th.

How can you be a ConnectedCOP if you're not LinkedIn?

There have been a few stories in the major press recently about gang members increasing use of social media. The most recent just today by the Associated Press: Use of Twitter, Facebook rising among gang members

I posted the article on the Law Enforcement 2.0 LinkedIn group and a couple hours later, it was commented on by Ken Davey, a senior member of the Hong Kong Police. Davey joined the group just a couple weeks ago and has already commented a few times.

What he pointed out is that it doesn’t matter where in the world, policing is facing the same issues. Regarding gangs he said, “Recruitment of new members, directions on activities, warnings of impending police action, gathering of their own intel, perhaps even looking for weak spots to exploit in authority figures or other gangs, are all potential ways they might and do use social media.”

“This an area that many police forces, though maybe still catching up, ought to feel more secure in using social media than they do for, perhaps, community policing. After all, it is just another way of criminals making use of whatever is available to them out there and, just as we police the streets, we now need to police a cyber-sector.”

My favorite part of his comments:

For example, patrolling chat rooms for sexual predators is nothing new, so while maybe the older, less tech-savvy LEOs might not know how to use the tool itself, their policing skills and experience are still directly relevant to the job. It’s just a case of learning to use the tools.
~Chief Superintendent Ken Davey, Hong Kong Police

“For example, patrolling chat rooms for sexual predators is nothing new, so while maybe the older, less tech-savvy LEOs might not know how to use the tool itself, their policing skills and experience are still directly relevant to the job. It’s just a case of learning to use the tools.”

The time has come

Chief Superintendent Davey is in Hong Kong. And where are you right now? Where else can you exchange ideas on topics that you struggle with every day like this? You don’t have time to always travel to events to do it. Why not get on LinkedIn. It’s incredibly easy to get started. You can join groups right away. The value you get out of groups is equal to what you put in. And even if you’re one of those “less tech-savvy LEOs” that Davey refers to, you can get going on LinkedIn. Run into trouble? Find some old-fashioned piece of technology (like email or a phone) and contact me. I’m at your service.

Police Executives on LinkedIn

Recently I started a few other groups for police executives. The groups are only for command level officers with one subgroup for chiefs only. So, any time you want, you can put a topic out there and know that only chiefs – with decades of experience – will hear it and possibly offer some valuable insight, any hour of the day.

I have chiefs helping me manage them including Chief Molloy in Michigan, Chief Alexander in Florida and Chief Stacey in Nebraska.

We also have subgroups by geography so if you want to link all the police executives in your state, just say the word and I’ll set it up. While the Law Enforcement 2.0 group, and most others are open to just about anybody, none of the executive groups are public. The best way to join is, once you’re on LinkedIn, contact me through there.

LinkedIn just makes sense for LEOs of all levels. It’s inherently a place where professionals get together to share ideas. No “friending”, no “following”, just linking to other people with shared interests and exchanging good information.

If you’re not on LinkedIn, what are you waiting for? And if you are, be sure to join the groups I mention here and search for others. There are many that are law enforcement related.

No reason to object

All the reasons cops think of to avoid social media really don’t apply with LinkedIn. Like the privacy issues you all worry about. You set your profile up so no one can see it unless you’re linked. And you link with other professionals, not citizens or former high-school chums. The facebook issues where a “friend-of-a-friend” can see your stuff without you knowing are just not there. And the benefits are huge. You’ll make global connections and have access to a wealth of information. The power of LinkedIn is when you start to see potential connections to people you want to know but don’t. Participation, as always, is the key.

SMILE-ing gets easier

The cost of The SMILE Conference™ has been adjusted a bit AND the early bird rate extended by two weeks.

Recently we moved the location of the SMILE conference from a very expensive hotel to a much more affordable, yet still very classy, venue called the “1777 F Street, NW” building. As a result, we wanted to pass some of the savings along and brought the cost of the conference down in a couple ways. Registering at the door for all 3 days is now a full $100 less than it was. The normal registration fee for all 3 days, which now starts February 16th is down by $50 to $699. Likewise, cost for the LAwS Academy one-day only training was lowered by $25 for both the regular registration rate and the on-site registration rate.

Add to all that, the early bird rate has been extended until February 15th. We thought the new website went up only 1 week before the previous early bird deadline and might have caught some people by surprise. So register through February 15th at the early bird rate, the regular conference rate will be in effect after that. There will not be another extension on the early bird.

We hope this makes it a little bit easier to attend the SMILE Conference. Excitement is building. Speakers and attendees are arriving from 4 countries so far.

Recruits who blog

The Chief of the Lincoln NE police department has one of the most well-read and highly regarded Chief’s blogs in the country. As an avid blogger, Chief Tom Casady has now expanded the blogging responsibilities all the way down to the very newest recruits. The 18 members of the Spring recruit class at the police academy are taking turns blogging about their experience.

Casady is hoping The Recruit Blog will help the LPD’s recruiting efforts. He said, “I am hoping that applicants or potential applicants who either visit our web site or who we refer directly to the page are intrigued by the first-hand account of the training experience. I think some potential recruits will become more interested if they read about the training.”

The idea for the blog came from a marketing class at the University of Nebraska during the Spring of 2008. The class took on the PD as a “client” to help with the department’s recruitment campaign. He said the students really honed in on the importance of using great electronic communication, especially dynamic web content, for this target audience. Part of the goal was not only to attract more officer recruits but also to recruit higher caliber applicants.

The college students’ design is meant to mimic the notebooks the recruits actually carry. He added, “during their research, they learned that many of our officers carry this notebook, that for several years was made as a “gift” to new recruits by a now-retired officer who was a leather worker.”

Each recruit will blog for one week of the 19-week police academy experience. Their posts are reviewed by the department’s PIO before being posted to be sure they’re appropriate and don’t divulge anything they shouldn’t.

The blog was launched just two days ago so it’s impossible to tell if it’s having the desired effect just yet. But, at the end of the 19 weeks, the LPD may not only have 18 new police officers, but they may also have inadvertently produced officers who are conditioned to incorporate social media tools into their police work. Genius! Maybe some will be future ConnectedCOPS writers.

You’re invited to SMILE

The SMILE Conference logoLAwS Communications is thrilled to announce The SMILE Conference™ is coming in April. SMILE=Social Media In Law Enforcment. It is now exclusively a LAwS Communications Event and promises to be the must-attend conference of the year. Current keynote speakers include Jack Holt and Nick Keane, with two more to be announced shortly. The agenda includes addresses from speakers coming from the UK, Canada and all over the U.S.

Jack Holt is the morning keynote on Thursday. He is the Senior New Media Director at the Department of Defense. He has recently lead the department through the process of creating a social media policy to guide other branches of the military. He is considering several topics, all of which would be outstanding addresses. Nick Keane is the afternoon keynote on Thursday. Besides being an all-around fun guy, Nick is Director of Knowledge at the National Policing Improvement Agency (NPIA) in London, England. He will be delivering a comprehensive report on the state of social media in law enforcement in the UK’s 43 police forces.

Wednesday is an optional training day at the LAwS Academy. It’s eight hours of training delivered by Lauri Stevens with 5 slots available in the evening for one-on-one sessions to review and evaluate your current social media plan, or discuss how to develop one, at no additional cost. These appointments are first-come, first-served. You may book as soon as you’re registered.

Thursday’s presentations include community engagement topics while Friday will be all about investigations and crime prevention, and hopefully, depending on the confirmation of a yet-to-be-announced speaker, the legal issues involved. Check the SMILE website often and keep an eye on that Friday afternoon for announcements of some international-level crime prevention “bigshots”.

Other speaker slots are almost entirely booked. A few have not confirmed so their names on not on the site quite yet. If you’re interested in speaking, and you have a sizzling topic idea, feel free to get in touch and I’ll keep you posted if a speaker slot becomes available.

Some speakers include Chief Dan Alexander and his Public Information/Social Media Manager Mark Economou from Boca Raton Police. They will give separate presentations back to back. It promises to be an excellent opportunity for attendees to hear directly from the two key figures at one of the most successful agencies to use social media in the U.S.

Scott Mills, widely known as “he who rocks hardest at social media in policing” will give us a riveting presentation on investigations and crime prevention. Scott is a Toronto Police Officer and President of “NoToGangs.org” . Civilian gang investigator (at Albany PD) Ron “Cook” Barrett will show attendees some unique investigative techniques, and Chris Duque (aka Dah Big Kahuna) a retired Detective at Honolulu PD will also address online investigations with social media.

Mike Bostic, former Deputy Chief at LAPD, Assistant Chief Bill LePere at Lakeland Florida PD, Sgt Tim Burrows from Toronto Police, Mike Vallez a former LEO and podcaster/blogger, Todd Shipley from Vere Software are among the outstanding speakers.

We have sponsor and vendor slots available. Space is quite limited for vendors, sign-up soon if you’re interested in grabbing one of those.

Keep SMILE-ing. I am. 🙂

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