Since November 2011, the Zurich City Police has been using Facebook and Twitter for an open dialogue with the community. Together with the University of Applied Sciences in Business Administration Zurich, they planned a Twitter day called “#stapo24”. Over a 24-hour period the Zurich City Police tweeted each of the 250 incidents it dealt with. Every tweet was marked with the hashtag #stapo24. In doing so, anyone could follow the variety of police operations in real time. The Twitter day “#stapo24” attracted a lot of attention as well in Switzerland as abroad. Meanwhile, the #stapo24 day was evaluated. The key figures are summarized in an infographic.
Note: Michael Wirz is the Deputy Chief Information Officer at Zurich City Police.
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Policing with Twitter
Social Media and Policing the Community
Note: This post was previously published at onthebeat101.
In this first feature on technology I’ll be exploring the role of social media in community policing. What role do services like Twitter and Facebook have to play in policing the community and in the lives of PCSOs? Are they time wasters or can they help officers be in touch with the areas and citizens they are responsible for?
There are more PCSOs, police officers and police services on Twitter than ever before – some with over 1,500 followers – so what are they tweeting about, who’s listening and what’s the point?
The police’s use of Twitter and social media has been severely criticised in some quarters – Fiona McEvoy, of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said: ‘The police should be catching criminals, not wasting time on social websites…‘These diversions are not necessary and ultimately cost the taxpayer money.’
PCSO with over 1,500 Twitter followers
After last summer’s riots and the subsequent reports into their causes, it became apparent that better relations between police and communities were essential. One of the key issues that people involved in the disorder cited again and again was a hostile relationship with the police, based around dislike, distrust and even hatred.
One of the suggestions of the HMIC report was:
“The development of a far more systematic and structured approach to community engagement by neighbourhood policing teams and other local policing assets”
Improving relations relies upon improving communication. Communities need and deserve to understand what the police do on a day-to-day basis, as well as what long term projects they’re involved in and what goals they are working towards. Churning out “success stories” in press releases just isn’t enough anymore.
Life on the beat is not like TV
PCSO Simon Latham,who has some 600 followers, believes Twitter can play an important role in raising PCSOs profile. He told onthebeat101: ”Some people do not know what a PCSO does; as PCSOs have had bad press in the past so it is an opportunity to showcase the work we carry out on a daily basis. It should also help people understand that life on the beat is not always like it is portrayed in some TV programmes.”
We interviewed PCSO Andy Ryan, a big presence in the PCSO twittersphere with over 1,500 followers. He told us: “neighbourhood policing is about listening and communicating with your community and identifying new ways to do that”.
A friendly face behind the police
The joy of twitter is that it’s all about interaction and engagement. A personal PCSO or police service Twitter account allows quick and cheap communication of what they’re doing.
Pierre Petrou, Head of Business Operations at MPS Camden, who manages the Camden MPS Twitter account, explains the benefits of Twitter to a police service…
PCSO Simon Latham says: “My use of Twitter is generally informative – updates into my day’s activities, crime prevention, appeals for information, and generally a way of interacting with users – some local to my patch, others not. Twitter offers a platform to show a friendly face behind the name and a contact within the police.”
Indeed, the Met told On the Beat 101 that “The MPS use of Twitter and other social media tool is to increase direct engagement with the public”.
Twitter increases engagement with the public
Reading updates on your phone has an immediacy that’s second only to talking face to face. Tweeting updates on police work is so fast it captures the moment and gives a feel of how policing works.
PCSO Andy Ryan says Twitter “lets me inform the local community about what the team are doing to solve local issues in the community that have been raised as a concern”.
PCSO Simon Latham agrees: “There is a huge twitter audience who may not have contact with the police usually, and Twitter is a quick, easy and modern way of communicating with them and the outside world especially people who aren’t from the police. It is also useful for information, as after building a rapport with users, they are willing to provide information – for example on crime, abandoned vehicles, issues affecting their neighbourhood.”
And if communities can understand how policing functions and what it’s about, perhaps trust can be restored.
Twitter and Facebook accounts are free
However, even if it’s free to set up a Twitter or Facebook account, developing a strategy for social media engagement does take time and energy – but it’s worth having one. And of course different forces will have different approaches.
Pierre Petrou, who is responsible for sending out the tweets from the MPS Camden Twitter account, describes how often he tweets and why…
On the Beat has learnt that the MPS ran several pilot Twitter schemes in London boroughs first. After this period, boroughs that wanted an account could apply to the Met for one. The Met told us that they now “aim to have all 32 boroughs up and running with Twitter accounts in the near future”. Pierre Petrou told onthebeat101 that: “The management boards at the Met have decided that social media is the way forward.”
Onthebeat101’s Twitter pageBoth individual PCSOs and police officers tweeting personally and police services need to think carefully about when and what to tweet. All sorts of people follow PCSO and police service Twitter accounts: members of the local community, local businesses, friends, journalists as well as other officers and services.
PCSO Simon Latham told us about how he uses Twitter: “Tweeting does not take long. Generally, I access Twitter for around 5-10 mins a day. It only takes 20 seconds to type out a tweet so does not distract me from my daily patrolling duties.
Pierre Petrou agrees that officers needn’t spend too long on Twitter!
Read More:
You can find out more in our full interview with PCSO Andy Ryan – one of the most popular PCSOs on Twitter, and by reading our Top Tips for PCSOs on Twitter. The Met told onthebeat101 that they are launching a new Twitter page on their website soon, so keep your eyes peeled for that! You can also listen to our full interview with Pierre Petrou of Camden MPS.
And if you’re still unsure about starting tweeting or what to tweet about, take a look at our Top PCSOs on Twitter. Why not follow us: @onthebeat101
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- Case Studies, SM Tools, SM Use, Twitter
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Here's who's SMILE'n in #Vancouver
Less than a week from now, law enforcement professionals from five countries (Canada, Netherlands, U.S., UK, Australia) will gather in Vancouver to share best practices and ideas in law enforcement use of social media and the Internet. The SMILE Conference™ will occur March 26-29 at the Fairmont Vancouver.
LAwS Communications is producing the Vancouver event in partnership with the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police. The SMILE Conference™ began just under two years ago in April in Washington, D.C. Subsequent conferences occurred in Santa Monica, Chicago and Dallas, with each city’s Police Department hosting. The Vancouver event is the fifth event and the first to be held outside of the United States.
Follow hashtag #SMILEcon and, if you can’t be in Vancouver, feel free to tweet your questions to our assembled group of experts. Additionally, some sessions will be streamed live at The SMILE Conference website.
Here’s a look at the agencies who will be represented at The SMILE Conference.
- Abbotsford Police Department
- American Military University
- B.C. Securities Commission
- Barrie Police
- Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police
- Calgary Police Service
- Canadian Pacific Police Service
- Chatham-Kent Fire Department
- Coquiltam, City of
- Coquitlam RCMP
- Dave.ca Communications
- Delta Police Department
- Department of Fisheries and Oceans
- Department of Justice Canada
- Dutch Police
- Edmonton Police Service
- El Monte Police Department, California
- Federal Bureau of Investigation
- FINTRAC
- Halifax Regional Police
- Hamilton Police Service
- IBM
- InterChange Public Affairs
- LAwS Communications
- Lethbridge Regional Police Service
- Manitoba Department of Justice
- Medicine Hat Police Service
- Metro Vancouver Crime Stoppers
- Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services
- Ministry of Justice, Police Services Division
- Montreal Police Service
- National Search & Rescue Sec.
- Nelson Police Department
- Net-L3.com
- New Westminster Police Department
- Nishnawbe Aski Police
- Oak Bay Police Department
- Ontario Association of Police Educators
- Ontario Provincial Police
- Ottawa Police Service
- Peel Regional Police
- PoliceOne
- Power Corporation of Canada
- Prince Albert Police Service
- Raytheon Network Centric Solutions
- Regina Police Service
- Ribbet Inc.
- Royal Canadian Mounted Police
- Royal Turks and Caicos Islands Police
- Saanich Police
- Saskatoon Police Service
- Sceneverse Inc.
- Service de police de la Ville de Québec
- Service de police de la Ville de Gatineau
- Sierra Systems
- Six Nations Police
- Social Catalyst Inc.
- Sûreté du Québec
- Surrey, City of
- Surrey RCMP
- Tayside Police, Scotland
- Toddington International
- Toronto Police Service
- Transit Police
- University of Wollongong
- Vancouver Police Department
- Vermont State Police
- Victoria Police Department
- Waterloo Regional Police Service
- Windsor Police Service
- Winnipeg Police Service
- York Regional Police
Social Media Quick Tip: Remove Unwanted Applications on Facebook
If you’ve you clicked through a link on Facebook and installed something you wish you hadn’t, it’s important to delete the application as soon as possible. And even if you haven’t, it’s good practice to check your Facebook account every now and then — once a month or so — to make sure you haven’t inadvertently installed harmful apps.
Here how to do it: In the upper right pull-down menu next to Home, select Account Settings. Next, choose Apps. You will see a list of all the applications you’ve installed.
To the right of each you can:
- Edit settings for each application
- Click the X to the right of Edit and remove them altogether.
If you’re unsure of an application’s worth, I recommend option #2.
This Social Media Quick Tip was previously published on LawOfficer.com.
Sovereign Citizens, Officer Safety and Social Media
LAwS Communications is teaming up with Chief Bob Paudert to bring officer safety training about the Sovereign Citizens movement to police officers electronically. Details are below.
May 20, 2010 was a very tragic day. Not only because it marks the day when two more officers died in the line of the duty, but for the father of one of those officers, it’s especially tragic because it might have been prevented. Bob Paudert was Chief of Police in West Memphis, Arkansas on that day in May nearly two years ago, when he was driving down Highway 40 with his wife Linda and heard the call that an officer was down. At that point, he didn’t know if it were one of his agency’s officers or another’s, and he surely didn’t expect what he learned when he arrived on the scene. One of the officers gun-downed during a traffic stop, was his own son Sergeant Brandon Paudert and Brandon’s partner Officer Bill Evans. The murderers were Jerry and Joe Kane, father and son. Joe Kane was just 16 years at the time. But due to “training” from his father, not too young to brandish the AK-47 that didn’t give the officers a chance. If you haven’t seen the tragic video of that day’s events, please view it here, before you read further.
The Feds dropped the ball
The Kanes were members of the “Sovereign Citizens” movement. Chief Paudert says if only the federal government had shared more of what it knew about these types of threats to domestic security, his son Brandon and partner Bill might be alive today. Instead, the two officers didn’t know who or what they were dealing with. In a taped interview shortly after the officers were killed, Paudert said they didn’t stand a chance. “… those those bullets fro the AK47 penetrate anything that’s in front of it. Brandon when he took cover, but he just didn’t have cover. It just penetrated and riddled is body with bullets.”
To the Chief, information sharing from the feds to state and local law enforcement has been non-existent and he hasn’t been shy about sharing that opinion. Paudert has had direct and personal contact with Attorney General Eric Holder, as well as with the staff at the FBI’s Domestic Terrorism Unit. Paudert politely points out that the federal government insists they are aware of the problem and are “working on it”, and that he has seen significant changes in these agencies in the recent months. He explained, “the U. S. Attorney has had a representative at each of our conferences to contribute resources and share information with the state and local officers. I have also been in contact with the FBI and they too are participating in the conferences and using the NCIC to alert officers on the possible dangers on traffic stops. With this effort, of all working together and sharing critical information, we will save officers’ lives”. In recent weeks, we’ve seen several main stream news articles indicating that the Feds are finally addressing the issue.
But Chief Paudert is too smart to know the feds aren’t going to take care of business like it needs to happen, so he’s taken it upon himself, as painful as that can be. Every day since that day in 2010 he’s been the spokesperson for educating law officers of the danger of sovereign citizens.
And then he quit his job
In order to meet the needs of the law enforcement community, Chief Paudert quit his post as Chief of Police in West Memphis as of August 31, 2011. On September 1st, he began a non-stop road-trip of public appearances to speak to law enforcement groups about sovereign citizens.
He had been speaking to groups all along but wanted to devote more time to his mission. But, traveling constantly, as the Chief has been doing, can take a toll on self and on family. Paudert has no plans to quit because he feels he’s only scratching the service of what needs to be done to spread his message of officer safety. Instead, he wants to expand his reach to meet a bigger and growing demand.
Early in 2011 I connected with Chief Paudert to present the idea of using the power of social media to more efficiently spread his message to a bigger audience. The Chief’s not a technical guy, not many chiefs are, but he instantly understood the possibilities. In the beginning, he said, he struggled with email, phone and speaking engagements to warn law officers of the dangers of the “insidious sovereign citizens’ movement, calling the task daunting and exhaustive. He added, “With social media we can get our message out to thousands of officers in much less time and cost. Time is certainly a major factor in this mission. The more we reach, the more lives will be saved.” And that’s the bottom line.
First we created a Facebook fan page for the Chief. Please hit the “like” button. If you explore the tabs on the left, you’ll discover resources covering the many dangers of the Sovereign Citizen movement, educational videos, law enforcement tips, and links to a wealth of other information about domestic terrorists at the Southern Poverty Law Center website.
Growing the message
Because the Chief can’t be stretched far enough to meet demand and the need for education in this area, he has teamed up with LAwS Communications to bring his important training – the same training he delivers on the road – to law enforcement in a webinar format.
To begin, we scheduled two dates and times, April 16th at 1:00 p.m. and April 23rd at 6:00 p.m. By holding two webinars, our intention is to accommodate shift changes. At $49, we’ve kept the cost as low as possible and we hope it is within the reach of any agency’s budget.
Here are all the important links you need:
To download the flier with all the info, click here.
To register for the webinars click here.
To find Chief Paudert’s Facebook Fan Page, click here.
The YouTube video (also inserted above), can be found here.
An interview with Paudert by Commercial Appeal, part one, is here.
An interview with Paudert by Commercial Appeal, part two, is here.
The Call to Action: Social Media for Officer Safety
With social media, there is no end to the possible outcomes. Personally, I want to see these tools used strategically by law enforcement agencies in investigations and for community engagement, and also by people like Paudert, who have important information to share. But it doesn’t end here.
We, collectively, are an army…. a really big one. After you attend this webinar, use what you learn to share the information far and wide. Schedule within your social media agenda to tweet one tweet every day just one message to help keep YOUR officers safe. There are many many more officer safety messages to be shared (and we have plans to do so here at LAwS Communications in the future.) If every law enforcement agency on Twitter tweeted just one officer safety message per day, that would be tens of thousands of messages. The really exciting part is that those messages also reach beyond officers into the huge community of supporters. Together, WE CAN squash the hate. All of it, everwhere. At least our voice of support for officer safety initiatives should be louder than the rest.
To register to attend the Sovereign Citizen and Officer Safety Webinar click the links below:
online event registration
by Regonline |
online event registration
by Regonline |
To keep abreast of future news about The SMILE Conference, social media in law enforcement and how LAwS Communications will promote the use of social media to expand messages of officer safety, please join the LAwSComm email list here.
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