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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TAG: Twitter
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
- March, 21
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- Case Studies, SM Tools, SM Use, Twitter
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Why I am nominating Scott Mills @GraffitiBMXCop for a Shorty Award
When P.C. Scott Mills delivers presentations to students on behalf of the Toronto Police Service, he finishes by encouraging his audience members to “friend” him on Facebook. Students initially are incredulous to this. Meeting an authority figure who understands the social media tools of their generation is a rarity. Moreover, Mills communicates openly and sincerely about the kinds of issues they consider important.
As an experienced high school teacher, I have seen my share of guest speakers, motivational talks, and educational lectures. The number of Facebook friends on Scott’s FB account isn’t about popularity as much as it is a test to see how many students he reached on any particular day. Some of these FB connections are really quite compelling, especially when one sees the kind of impact Scott is capable of making on some of the most hard-to-reach youths.
I have known Scott in a professional capacity for several years, meeting him for the first time after one of a talk about one of his passions: legal graffiti. Some neighbourhood kids had defaced the garage of my childhood home and I wasn’t prepared to listen to anyone talk so passionately about why the city needed opportunities for graffiti artists.
By the end of the talk, I was a convert.
This is not the first time that Scott has taken down fences in order to get the dialogue started with someone who is angry, skeptical, and cynical. Want to read an amazing story about a highly unlikely friendship? Have a look at #HomelessJoe which is attached to numerous tweets documenting @graffitibmxcop’s history with “HomelessJoe.”
Not convinced that Scott embraces the idea of legal graffiti and knows how to be an intergenerational voice to youth? Just ask @wellandgood, @bubzart, @artofphade, @kalmplex, and @schoolofhustle what they think of @graffitibmxcop. Think that the BMX is just a ruse? @heidibezanson and @torontobmx would have something to say about that.
Scott is certainly a game-changer when it comes to law enforcement and social engagement. A prolific proponent of social media, he is a frequent user of Facebook and Twitter as crime prevention tools as well as a means to canvass for leads after an occurrence.
At other times, Tweets may be an alert about a missing person, a warning about break-ins or perhaps just a shout-out for individuals who are mentoring young people in the community at a BMX bike park, fitness program, or art and design workshop.
Scott has logged what must amount to thousands of contact hours on social media and this activity indicates not only a strong presence online but also comfort in using these tools as part of modern day policing.
In addition to talks to the education community, he has delivered numerous in-service professional development sessions to colleagues, teaching them how to integrate Twitter and Facebook into day-to-day policing and how to remain mindful of the kind of impact officers can make with their own online presence.
Scott has also been one of those essential voices of the Toronto Police Service, willing to listen and also proactive about effecting change that leads to an improvement in services or policy. One of the reasons why I will be nominating him for a Shorty Award is because I will be forever in awe of how Scott is able to use his communication skills and gift in diplomacy to engage and often win over individuals who are skeptical about the police.
The police might have been the original street corner politicians but Scott Mills is definitely the mayor of social media.
Note: If you would like to vote for Scott Mills for the #lifesavinghero Shorty award, click here and fill in the form.
A Case Study: Social Media Key To Crime Stoppers Programs’ Success & Community Safety
In today’s reality, social media tools and platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, Foursquare, Webdoc, QR Codes and Google Plus are important two way communication tools that improves the reach of the Crime Stoppers mission of helping to stop, solve and prevent crimes together. It is important to have access to all the social media platforms that your program is using to reach your communities on your websites in the form of the service provider icons like Twitter, Facebook, Youtube, LinkedIn and Google Plus hyperlinked to your accounts.
Many Crime Stoppers programs in Canada and throughout the world have adapted a social media presence that has resulted in some notable success stories. There are still many programs struggling to establish their social media, and a number who simply don’t know how to do it. At the Crime Stoppers International Training Conference in Jamaica in 2011, an online guide for social media set up was provided.
This guide is available on the official Canadian Crime Stoppers Association Facebook Page and on the official Crime Stoppers International Facebook page by clicking on the Webdoc app on the top left corner of the pages. Social media terms of use, styles and settings are constantly changing. The ‘Webdoc’ format has been adapted because it is free and is easily to update everyone who is operating a social media set up for a Crime Stoppers program. In addition, as you will read below, Webdoc is a great way to pull all of the information from traditional media and social media on a particular case into one location online, and is very easy to update
In dialogue with the President of the Canadian Crime Stoppers Association, Ralph Page, I was asked to describe a ‘case study’ using social media. I decided to describe one case that social media was used for a case of an abducted child and a wanted fugitive to give those programs some basic suggestions on how to set up social media for their programs.
Before I chronicle the story here, it should be pointed out that the undisputed leader when it comes to using social media for abduction cases, for his own case, and to help others facing similar, and complicated situations is Mr. Stephen Watkins. Stephen has leveraged every social media tool there is to try to locate his two boys and seek justice. I have often followed his lead on the effective use of social media, and Stephen is to be commended for always thinking of making the tools and resources that he has found through his personal case available for others to use effectively to bring peace of mind to so many people who are searching for answers due to an unsolved crime. The same social media approaches can and should be used in crime prevention, to stop violence before it starts, and Crime Stoppers is one of the keys to success worldwide, in my humble opinion.
The case I will talk about is that of a missing little girl named Pearl Gavaghan Da Massa who was alleged to have been abducted by her biological mother from England, and last seen in the Parkdale area of Toronto when I was asked to get involved using social media by a fellow officer, Constable Wendy Drummond, a media relations officer for the Toronto Police Service. I subsequently worked very closely with Henry Da Massa, Pearl’s biological father, the officers in the the Toronto Police Service Fugitive Squad led by Detective Rick Mooney, as well as the Missing Children’s Society of Canada, who had offered a reward in the case.
When we started out, Henry had a Facebook profile called ‘Missing Pearl’ that had about 400 ‘friends’ on it, all of whom were following Henry’s journey to find his daughter. We assisted Henry to set up a Facebook Page for the case, and encouraged all Facebook traffic to be directed to the page. The reason for setting up a page, is that multiple people can then post officially as “Missing Pearl”. This could include investigators, family members or Crime Stoppers affiliated people. The other good thing about a Facebook page is that a Crime Stoppers Leave A Tip tab can be installed to any page, which allows a reader to click on the Leave A Tip Facebook app and be directed right into the Tipsoft / Crime Reports anonymous tip submit system that many Crime Stoppers use to process tips.
Henry started up a Twitter account dedicated to his search and started a hash tag on Twitter #FindPearl. For clarification to people new to Twitter, a hash tag is a key word and clickable link that anyone can start that you post in a ‘tweet’ that allows for anyone ‘tweeting’ about the case to use, thus allowing anyone who is following the situation the ability to type into the search bar on twitter the hash tag and see what is being said and by who. One thing to keep in mind as a Crime Stoppers program using social media, is that you should always be in contact with the investigating officer of the the case to ensure that the social media posts are complimentary to what the investigators are doing on their investigation. Social media is very public, and what is being stated on social media sites quite often is being followed by the the very people that are alleged to be suspects in cases like this. We maintained dialogue behind the scenes with the investigators to ensure that we were not stepping on anyone’s toes.
Henry also started a Youtube account, which he used to post some videos of he and his missing daughter.
It was the first time we tried to live stream an appeal using Crime Stoppers International. Immediately after broadcasting the appeal of Henry from our office in Toronto, his Facebook friends in England started sending him messages that they had seen his appeal video live!
Fast forward a month or so, and Crime Stoppers International President Michael Gordon-Gibson was coming in to Toronto from the United Kingdom to speak at the Toronto International Fugitive Investigators
Conference. Michael had asked me to co-present with him on the effective use of social media.
Here is where the true value of Crime Stoppers came into play. The partnership of the community, the police and the media, and now social media was leveraged at this Fugitive Conference.
A community member from the Parkdale area named Paisley Rae offered her assistance to make some Youtube videos appealing for information on the whereabouts of Pearl. She worked tirelessly filming and editing a video chronicling the last known places that Pearl had been seen in Toronto.
Rae’s video was posted to her Youtube account to assist the cause. Michael Gordon-Gibson filmed a video appeal that was posted to the Crime Stoppers International Youtube account that explored the value of using QR Codes (Quick Response Codes).
These codes are great for including on public handouts about the case. The idea is that a member of the public can scan the QR Code using their smart phone and get instant information about the case, who to call if they know something or how to submit anonymous information to Crime Stoppers.
Kevin Masterman, Media Coordinator for Toronto Police attended the Fugitive Conference presentation that was for law enforcement only, and wrote a story that included the appeal videos for finding Pearl, which was further shared into social media circles.
Mac’s Convenience Stores contributed to the appeal by adding a video appeal onto their digital display terminals in stores across Canada thanks to Sean Sportun, of the Toronto Crime Stoppers Board.
At one point during the summer of 2011, an online canvass using Facebook Places check ins and Fourquare check ins was done at Yonge Dundas Square in downtown Toronto that resulted in a lot of people attending a concert that featured Canadian rapper Classified, Hollerado and the Crash Test Dummies. A few photos were taken of this appeal with some of the band members to try to boost the public appeal for tips to solve the case. Some photos of this are here:
If you are saying to yourself at this point “How do you keep track of what everyone is doing?” This is where the Webdoc application we talked about earlier comes into play.
Everything we were doing in social media, I was compiling into one Webdoc about the case, that was easily shared at any time with anyone willing to assist with the appeal in social media, whether it be a fellow officer, a community member, citizen journalist, or a reporter from the traditional media.
This Webdoc became the living breathing filing system of the social and traditional media.
The poster for the Missing Pearl case was featured in the slide show at the popular State of NOW conference in New York City.
From this document we made a QR code, which eventually was published in a book of 350 unsolved missing person cases written by retired Toronto Star reporter, and Halton Crime Stoppers program board member Cal Millar called Missing Find Me. The book was recently published and is available on Amazon.com.
By the time I got a copy of the book, 5 cases had already been solved. Ironically, Cal had included a QR code in the book for the Webdoc on the Missing Pearl case. Cal said to me he was going to have to do an update to the book because the cases were getting solved. Not even Cal quite understood the proper use of QR Codes, but it became quickly apparent to him that the use of QR Codes was essential for his work with Crime Stoppers chronicling unsolved murder cases and missing person cases.
I quickly got my smart phone out and scanned the QR Code for the Missing Pearl case. It came up to good news.. that on September 26, 2011 Pearl had been safely located in Montreal after a tip from a member of the public to a patrolling police officer about suspicious activity by an adult female and a child.
The exact wording was as follows, with a link to a traditional media story about how Pearl was located. “Good news: Pearl was located safely in Montreal September 26, 2011. Thank you to everyone who assisted with this case – the public, media and the police.”
As it turned out Pearl was located with her biological mother. Her mother was arrested, and Pearl is now back in England with her father. By scanning the QR Code in the book, the reader was immediately given reliable and up to date progress of the case. Cal has now told me that he will be using this format for his future research into unsolved murder cases and missing person cases… and it was right after this experience with Cal, and a talk with Ralph that Ralph asked me to write this out for publication in the Crime Stoppers newsletter.
I have been told by some long time Crime Stoppers board members that this is ‘very complicated’.
It really isn’t complicated at all. It is a very efficient way to chronicle ongoing cases for Crime Stoppers programs across Canada and worldwide.
It all starts with a proper set up in social media of your program. The Webdoc on how to set up your Crime Stoppers program in a similar way to how Henry set it up to find his missing daughter is posted on the Canadian Crime Stoppers Association and Crime Stoppers International official Facebook pages at the top left corner.
Click here: http://facebook.com/CSIWorld or http://Facebook.com/CanStopCrime
Social media platforms and settings are constantly changing, and updates will be posted often to the webdoc by myself and others who are trusted contributors to Crime Stoppers, and familiar with social media. This is the beauty of using Webdoc. If someone in a program in Vancouver for instance comes up with a good way of doing things, they can post what worked for them on the Webdoc for other programs to reference, and they can tweet and facebook everyone following their social media with their updates to notify others. There are no trade secrets being shared, just very accessible data for all who care to contribute, with reliable people in Crime Stoppers moderating the information to keep our most important assets in tact… our Crime Stoppers brand, and our trust that we have with the public.
The effective use of social media for Crime Stoppers is something that all Crime Stoppers coordinators should be making a priority. It can be a little bit scary at first if you are new to social media, but with modern communication tools like Skype widely available, we are always here to assist, no matter what the question is.
To contact Scott Mills via Skype add graffitibmxcop to your contacts.
E-Mail Scott at SocialMedia@CSIWorld.org
- January, 20
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- Case Studies, SM Use
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Social Media and the Gun Owner
You’re a gun owner and an advocate for Second Amendments rights, right? Well, like you, we have to ask ourselves just what we’re doing to get the word out about our sport and the progress we’re making to preserve those cherished rights. Using the tools of social media may be a big part of that equation. So, the question is, what do we actually know about social media? What is it exactly? I have to be honest here and confess that up to about four weeks ago I knew next to nothing about it and if someone asked me what it was, my response would have been something like, “huh?”
Like most everyone else who tries to make a buck these days we have to make sure that our efforts are paying off. That is true no matter what our priorities may be. Money and time are definitely finite commodities, and if your budget and time constraints are anything close to mine, you can not afford to waste either. Tapping into the social media express train may not only be time-efficient, but cost-effective as well. As gun owners and gun rights advocates, using the tools that social media offers just makes good sense. Here’s what some people a whole lot smarter than me suggest:
Know what you want to achieve in life and set some goals to get there. If it’s your business, you may want to outline your ideas in some fashion. If it’s your passion about progressing our Second Amendment rights, then you and I need to get very busy. We can’t let the decision making go only to the politicians, because how many of them have actually had your best interest at heart lately? Do you have a personal or business website? If so, you definitely may want to put in place the things that will drive traffic to your site.
Are you on sites such as Facebook? If you have like-minded followers, but they’re not on Facebook with you, why have you spent the last several months promoting yourself or your ideas there? We have to make sure that what we are doing fits our particular demographics, personal, business or 2nd Amendment issues.
I’ll be the very first to admit that I am not any kind of techie. I didn’t know I needed help, but for me help arrived unexpectedly and I am most grateful. We need to seek help when we need it, and I’m not afraid to say that when it comes to social media issues I was, and still am, in way above my head.
I have a sneaking suspicion that, while it has been relatively quiet for the last three years concerning our gun rights, if someone is given a second term in office we may see many of those rights eroded away. Look, I may be in the minority by thinking this way, but I have a feeling I’m not. It’s just that sense of uneasiness that seems to permeate out of Washington, DC lately, and I get the nervous sensation that things may turn very sour for gun owners if we are not really careful and steadfastly vigilant.
Do you want to get your word out, have your voice heard, and share with others your thoughts and concerns? How about using Twitter? Success on Twitter can best be measured by the number of retweets you get. Are you getting any, retweets I mean? Sorry, I just had to do that! You should be getting a few each week, and in that way you know that your voice is not only being heard, but is being shared with an ever-widening audience. You can determine the number of retweeets you get by going to sites such as retweetrank.com or maybe twitteranalyzer.com. Twitter is great for your business promotion ideas as well and definitely worth a second look.
Insofar as your website is concerned, how many hits are you getting there and are you watching your site’s statistics? Drive people to your site by using common search engine words that will encourage others to take a look. Use your business product or service, or concentrate on guns and Second Amendment wording. It all helps to get your message out.
Social media is all very new to me too, but gradually I am coming around and beginning to realize the enormous benefits we have by using the varied tools it offers. I mentioned a couple here, but there are lots out there. Tapping into any of them is much better than just allowing our rights and our freedoms to be whittled away because it’s the whim of some weak-kneed political appointee.
A forty-year law enforcement veteran, John Elliott worked for police agencies in Virginia, Rhode Island and Florida, as well as for the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Customs Service. He also spent many years working with Interpol, and was a bomb disposal technician conducting land mine and unexploded military ordnance disposal in the Middle East, Eastern Europe, Asia and Northern Africa. Thirty-seven of those years was spent working in concert with the U.S. State Department’s Office of Special Investigations and with Mossad in Israel. He started writing in 1969 while on a charter flight from the Far East to Travis Air Force Base in California, and is the author of eleven books, with three due for publication shortly. He has also written articles for the U.S. Department of Justice’s Quarterly Review, “The Thin Blue Line,” and wrote book reviews for the Audubon Society and the Smithsonian through the Humboldt Institute of Maine. He is an editorial writer for www.Guns.com. His articles appear weekly, many of them aimed at protecting our Second Amendment rights. Please feel free to visit him there. He is also a weekly on-air contributor for the BBC’s Sunday Morning Live show in Belfast, Northern Ireland and has been an occasional speaker for Radio Zabok in Croatia. John Elliott is also a member of SCBWI, the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators, and a lifetime member of the Black Card Society. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in business, an MBA and Juris Doctorate degrees. He is the proud father of two daughters, and has five grandchildren, three girls and two boys.