by Lauri Stevens
The international group of judges of the third annual ConnectedCOPS Awards has determined the finalists for the 2014 awards.
TAG: Toronto Police
2013 ConnectedCOPS Awards Winners Announced
LAwS Communications Announces the Winners of the International ConnectedCOPS Awards
Recipients announced in eight categories at The SMILE Conference in Omaha, Neb.
Omaha, NE – October 01, 2013 – The winners of the second annual ConnectedCOPS™ Awards were announced last week at the SMILE Conference® in Omaha, Nebraska. The awards program began last year and immediately became highly sought after by law officers using social media in police operations.
“It is still very rare for law enforcement to understand the true depths of engagement they can achieve with social media,” said Lauri Stevens, founder of LAwS Communications and the ConnectedCOPS Awards. “The winners of the ConnectedCOPS awards are the people and agencies who are at the forefront of this realization. So in turn they set the bar and they set it very high for their peers. Through these awards, I hope we’re able to signal to others that social media isn’t about checking a box, but rather should be approached with proactive strategy and strong governance. If we succeed, law enforcement can become more transparent but also more efficient and potentially put more bad guys behind bars.”
From L to R is Sergeant Thorir Ingvarsson, Reykjavik Metropolitan Police (Excellence at a Large Agency); Superintendent Gary Askin, Waterloo Regional Police; Lindsay Charlesworth, Waterloo Regional Police (Social Media Campaign); Sean Stephenson, Calgary Police (Social Media Event Management); Detective Sam Palmer, Phoenix Police (Social Media Investigator); Bridget Fitzpatrick, Omaha Police (Civilian Award of Excellence); Lieutenant Christopher Cook, Arlington, TX (Social Media Leadership)
Not pictured: Deputy Chief Peter Sloly, Toronto Police (Social Media Top Cop); Bernard Keyworth, North West Motorway Group (Excellence at a Small Agency)
The 2013 ConnectedCOPS Awards winners in eight categories are:
Social Media Award of Excellence at a Large Agency – Reykjavik Police, Iceland
“We are honored to receive this important and prestigious award, not to mention when we see who else were nominated and how many police departments around the world are doing great things in the field,” said Stefan Eriksson, Chief of Police of the Reykjavik Metropolitan Police. “The use of social media has been an important aspect of information sharing for the Reykjavík Metropolitan Police but importantly also in maintaining a relationship with the citizens in the last few years. The key to our success in the field has been in how people have embraced this new type of communication and have been willing to participate. Therefore it has been crucial to realize that social media is not a one way street but a town square, where the police and the people they serve can converse and work together.”
Social Media Award of Excellence at a Small Agency – North West Motorway Police Group, United Kingdom
“It was a unexpected surprise to receive international recognition for the NWMPG’s use of social media, particularly as we have only been using it, to improve policing on the Region’s motorways, for just over a year,” said Bernard Keyworth, a supervisor from the NWMPG.
Social Media Leadership Award – Lieutenant Christopher Cook, Arlington, TX Police, United States
“I want to thank our outstanding citizens for connecting with the Arlington Police Department through social media,” said Christopher Cook, Arlington Police. “Furthermore, I want to give credit to Police Chief Will Johnson for his commitment to social media strategies and my team of employees who work tirelessly to bring innovative and exciting content to all of our platforms. It’s truly a humbling experience and honor to be recognized as a pioneer in law enforcement social media.”
Social Media Civilian Award of Excellence – Bridget Fitzpatrick, Omaha, NE Police, United States
“It is an honor to be recognized by the SMILE Conference judges,” said Bridget Fitzpatrick, Omaha Police. “This award is a reflection not only of my work but also of the work of the staff of PIO’s for the Omaha Police Department, and more importantly the progressive mindset of Chief Todd Schmaderer. Without his support and encouragement, OPD would not be excelling as well in the social media world.”
Social Media Top Cop Award – Deputy Chief Peter Sloly, Toronto Police, ON, Canada
“The SMILE Conference social media Top Cop award is an honor but more a reflection of the inspiration that TPS trail blazers like Scott Mills, Tim Burrows and Ritesh Kotak have had on me,” said Peter Sloly, Toronto Police. “I wanted to use my rank and role in the TPS to enlighten and empower other officers to use social media to improve public safety, public service and public trust. The Top Cop award validates those efforts. I am indebted to Lauri Stevens and The SMILE Conference for giving me both the technical competence and strategic confidence to build the TPS social media strategy. Lauri gets a big assist for this Top Cop award.”
Social Media Investigator Award (Sponsored by LexisNexis) – Detective Sam Palmer, Phoenix Police, United States
“I am very honored to receive the ConnectedCOPS Social Media Investigator of the year award and look forward to being part of a trend in law enforcement,” said Sam Palmer, Phoenix Police. “Using technology based investigative techniques to help solve crimes is a new direction in law enforcement. It is cutting edge and exciting and I am proud to be part of it.”
Social Media Event Management Award – Calgary Police, AB, Canada
“The Strategic Communications Unit was working 24 hours a day without knowing how long it would be necessary to continue,” said Sean Stephenson, Calgary Police. “While I accept this award on behalf of the Calgary Police Service, I must acknowledge and thank my team for their efforts round the clock on the day the flood hit and the weeks that followed, and all Calgarians for their support and for taking our messages and moving them from social media to social groups.”
Social Media Campaign Management Award – Waterloo Regional Police, ON, Canada
“It is such an honor to be recognized for this award. Social Media has proven to be an incredible weapon for police to engage, educate, inform and connect with our community,” said Gary Askin, Waterloo Regional Police. “We are fortunate and grateful to Lauri Stevens and SMILE/Connected Cops to have created an environment where we can all learn from each other and force multiply our presence to enhance community safety, everywhere.”
For more information on the ConnectedCOPS Awards, please visit http://ConnectedCOPS.net/ConnectedCOPSAwards.
About LAwS Communications
LAwS Communications has been providing interactive media advice to law enforcement since 2005. Open Source communication technologies available today allow organizations to efficiently gather and distribute information like never before. LAwS Communications works with law enforcement professionals to help make sense of the tools available, help agencies craft a plan and social media policy as well as provide the training needed. LAwS Communications can help law enforcement organizations not only understand why an agency should take advantage of social media technologies, but also how to leverage these vast resources. LAwS Communications is located in Newbury, Massachusetts. It is a subsidiary of Stevens & Associates Inc.
For more information, please visit http://lawscommunications.com.
##
Contact:
Lauri Stevens
LAwS Communications
(978) 764-9887
PR Contact:
Nicole Fait
Public Communications Worldwide
(714) 891-3660
nfait@pc-w.com
Who's SMILE'n in Omaha
With two weeks until the next SMILE Conference® in Omaha, this is a list of the police agencies and companies sending at least one person to the conference. The SMILE Conference is hosted by Chief Todd Schmaderer and the men and women of the Omaha Police Department. Our keynotes include Deputy Chief Peter Sloly of Toronto Police and Commissioner Peter Muyshondt of the Belgian Police. Our second day will focus on event management from floods to viral videos to line of duty deaths and our third day features presentations from all three of our finalists in the Social Media Investigator category of the ConnectedCOPS Awards.
We will also explore social media monitoring, engagement, strategy and reputation management. There’s still time to register. Get a discount code from any of our exhibitors or LawOfficer.com.
- Airbnb, Inc., CA
- Arcadia Police Department, CA
- Arlington PD, TX
- Atlanta Police Department, GA
- Aurora Police Department, NE
- BAIR Analytics Inc.
- Barrie Police Service, ON
- Belgian Local Police, Belgium
- Bellevue Police Department, NE
- Bismarck Police Department, ND
- Bismarck, ND, City of
- Borders Limited, Nigeria
- Boston College Police Department, MA
- BrightPlanet, SD
- Calgary Police Service, AB
- Cape Coral Police Department, FL
- CES PRISM
- Cobourg Police Service, ON
- Crime Stoppers USA
- Department of Justice/FBI, VA
- Dover Police, DE
- Geofeedia, Inc., IL
- Hall County Sheriff’s Office, NE
- Harris County Sheriff, TX
- Helsinki Police Department, Finland
- Houston Police, TX
- IES Group/Media Sonar, ON
- Iowa Department of Public Saftey- Division of Intelligence, IA
- Iowa State University Police Department, IA
- Johnson County Sheriff, KS
- Kansas City Police Department, MO
- La Vista Police Department, NE
- LexisNexis
- Longview Police Department, TX
- Los Angeles Police Department, CA
- Massachusetts State Police, MA
- Milwaukee Police Department, WI
- MusterPoint
- NE Game & Parks/Law Enforcement, NE
- Nebraska State Patrol, NE
- New Castle County Police Department, DE
- New Westminster Police Department, BC
- Norfolk Police Department, VA
- NYPD, Sergeants Benevolent Association, NY
- Oakland County Sheriff, MI
- O’Fallon Police Department, MO
- Omaha Police Department, NE
- Orange County Sheriff’s Office, FL
- Peel Regional Police Service, ON
- Peoria Police Department, AZ
- Phoenix Police Department, AZ
- Prince William County Police Department, VA
- Real Time Crisis Intervetion
- Regina Police Service, SK
- Reykjavík Metropolitan Police, Iceland
- Rhode Island State Police, RI
- Round Rock Police Department, TX
- San Mateo Police Department, CA
- Tampa Police Department, FL
- Tempe Police Department, AZ
- Toronto Police Service, ON
- Univ. of Nebraska – Lincoln Police, NE
- Ventura County Sheriff’s Office, CA
- Vermillion Police Department, SD
- Waterloo Regional Police Service, ON
- Winnipeg Police Service, MB
- Winter Park Police Dept, FL
- York Regional Police, ON
ConnectedCOPS Awards 2013: Finalists for Top Cop Award
ConnectedCOPS Top Cop
This award is given to the sworn law enforcement executive of the rank of LT (or its international equivalent) and above, at any worldwide law enforcement agency who has demonstrated significant and sustained executive leadership to further the use of social media and Internet technologies in law enforcement. This individual is a risk-taker and a pioneer in his or her promotion and use of social media in policing. The recipient of the Top Cop Award also gives his thought leadership and expertise freely to others.
The three finalists are:
Chief Brian Kyes, Chelsea, Ma Police
Because of Chief Kyes’ tireless devotion and commitment, and in a very short amount of time, the Chelsea Police Department has developed a strong presence in social media. The Chelsea Police Department launched a brand new multi-lingual ChelseaPolice.com web site. The site offers a lot of information for the public to access with a blog, Youtube, Facebook, Twitter, and the Chief’s Weekly. Chief Kyes always stresses the need to acknowledge the diversity of the city and build a program where citizens could become more engaged with public safety and related events.
Deputy Chief Peter Sloly, Toronto Police
Because he was so quick to see the benefits of implementing social media into police operations, Deputy Chief Sloly was among the earliest of adopters of open source technology into law enforcement. Three years into the Force’s Social Media Strategy, over 300 members have been trained and authorized to represent TPS in social media. Deputy Sloly’s approach has been to decentralize social communications. His colleagues and subordinates will say they believe his approach is saving lives. Deputy Sloly is constantly called upon to share his knowledge at police and social media conferences, which he does regularly.
Inspector Michael Brown, West Midlands Police, UK
Inspector Brown is widely known and recognized for his work in mental health policing. His work, especially his “Paramedic Series” of posts on his blog Mental Health Cop has educated police officers, their agencies and others internationally. Inspector Brown freely gives of his time and expertise to mentor his colleagues at hospitals, ambulances services, mental health units as well as patients.
Finalists in the other awards categories have been announced throughout this week on this blog. Check back to see the finalists for the Excellence at a Large Agency Award tomorrow. Winners will be announced September 25th at the SMILE Conference in Omaha, Nebraska.
- Social Media Investigator
- Excellence at a Small Agency
- Social Media Event Management
- Social Media Civilian Award of Excellence
- Leadership Award
- Social Media Campaign Management
The ConnectedCOPS Awards were created by LAwS Communications with the intent of recognizing the good work being done by individual officers and law enforcement agencies with social media. The international law enforcement community will be considered for these awards. Any officer or agency anywhere in the world is eligible.
ConnectedCOPS Awards 2013: Finalists for Social Media Investigator
The Social Media Investigator award is sponsored by LexisNexis.
The ConnectedCOPS Social Media Investigator Award is generously sponsored by LexisNexis. The finalists in this category are doing extraordinary work with open source investigations. They demonstrate a consistent, methodical, persistent and high quality approach. The judges were very impressed with the quality of nominations in this category. Mary Craige is the Marketing Manager for LexisNexis’ Law Enforcement Division. She said “This year’s nominees for the ConnectedCOPS Top Social Media Investigator illustrate the importance of law enforcement’s ability to find, mine and analyze activity in social media. All of these nominees show their understanding of the medium and their ability to adapt their investigations to how the social media landscape is changing.”
ConnectedCOPS Social Media Investigator
This award is given to the sworn law enforcement investigator at any worldwide law enforcement agency who, as a practitioner, has used social media successfully to solve crime. The Social Media Investigator practices appropriate security measures and supervision in his/her investigations.
The three finalists are:
Jeff Bangild Detective Bangild works for the Toronto Police Service. He is highly respected for his work involving the Internet and social media especially in cases of criminal harassment. Bangild has made ground breaking headway in obtaining reasonable and probable grounds for arrest and charges with reasonable prospect for conviction by using social media investigative techniques that don’t require a forensic analysis of a suspect’s computer. Complainants who deal with him have the utmost respect for his demeanour and tenacity to get the job done, often when other police officers haven’t a clue where to start to investigate. Bangild is currently part of a team at Toronto Police Service designing policy to facilitate community and officer safety better using social media tools.
Eric Draeger Officer Draeger is with the Milwaukee Police Department. His work is primarily in the area of juvenile gang crime. Draeger’s work is said to have made a significant impact upon the safety of the Milwaukee area. His work has led to preventive measures taken by law enforcement to intercept threats of widespread violence during city events. In a recent adult trial Officer Draeger was able to take 31,000 pages of discovery from Facebook and develop a way to insert the evidence into a searchable database. His analysis lead him to be able to pinpoint that the defendant attempted to purchase a handgun the day before armed robberies had occurred. Draeger is also able to explain the intricacies of his social media investigative work to non-technical people and gain convictions in court.
Sam Palmer Detective Palmer is with the Phoenix Police Department. He is highly regarded in the law enforcement community and is regularly called upon to share his knowledge at law enforcement events. In several cases, when given little information, Palmer was able to identify the suspects with analysis of social media and employing techniques to connect the dots. One case involved threats against a high profile person in Phoenix. The other involved a series of robberies. With only nicknames, was able to identify five subjects and provide detectives with thorough profiles on each. In addition to assisting with on-going criminal investigations, Detective Palmer spends time educating youth so they are smarter and less vulnerable when they post information on social media sites.
Finalists in the other awards categories will be announced throughout the next several days on this blog. Check back to see the finalists for Social Media Event Management on Monday. Winners will be announced September 25th at The SMILE Conference™ in Omaha, Nebraska.
The ConnectedCOPS Awards were created by LAwS Communications with the intent of recognizing the good work being done by individual officers and law enforcement agencies with social media. The international law enforcement community will be considered for these awards. Any officer or agency anywhere in the world is eligible.