The Social Media Beat

The use of social media by law enforcement has grown exponentially over the last several years.  Overall, that growth has been beneficial for most agencies.  In fact, agencies have benefited by improving their interactions with the community, educating their citizens, promoting their positive achievements and disseminating real time information to the community.  However, not every aspect of this social media phenomenon has been positive.  One challenge facing most agencies is how to handle the posting of information about crimes in progress or reporting of crimes after the fact by citizens on the agencies social media outlets. It is impossible for most law enforcement agencies to monitor all of their social media channels 24/7 and respond to calls for service.  Therefore, it is important for all agencies that use any social media platform to post a notice in the description or information section which clearly states the site is not monitored 24/7 and any request for police servic ...

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In the “olden” days, the primary way for a citizen to complain or bring a concern to their police department was to come to the department or stop an officer if they see one. In the following years, the telephone became the primary means to communicate issues and concerns. As we entered the technology revolution, e-mail took over the number one spot. However, all of that has changed with the proliferation of social media. This is especially true if your department engages the community using social media. Now citizens can easily contact the department with an issue or concern in a very public way. In the past, those contacting a department about an issue or concern were never really sure who they should contact or if they would ever receive a response, depending on the nature of the issue. However, today since the issue or concern is being reported publicly on the department’s social media channels, most departments are quick to respond to prevent the issue from escalating. This is true f ...

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As law enforcements use of social media grows, the public’s thirst for more information continues to rise exponentially. Not only does the public want more information, they also want it right now. When should police departments provide information about ongoing, in progress incidents and when should they not provide this information? This question is not easily answered since no two communities are alike and no two incidents are the same. However, some basic guidelines can be helpful to understand the overall concept of publishing real time incident information and the value to the organization and potential pitfalls as well. How law enforcement agencies handle posting in progress incident information varies greatly across the country. Some departments are quick to post information while others rarely post information about in progress incidents. Some departments, like @SeattlePD has even created a program titled Tweets by Beat where incidents are tweeted to different beat Twitter accounts directly ...

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Law enforcement’s use of social media is an evolving phenomenon. As it began, the responsibility for posting information and monitoring typically resided with the personnel assigned to Community Outreach or Public Relations. Over the last several years, there has been a diversification of responsibility when it comes to social media. In many cases, the person responsible for the agency’s social media engagement may very well work outside community engagement or public relations. Some departments have found that social media engagement is best managed by someone who has the skills and the interest in it, rather than assigning the task to someone in a specific position. Other departments have simply opened up opportunities for multiple staff members to engage in using social media across a wide spectrum of assignments within the department. If your department is engaged in social media, you can be assured that your local media will be following, “liking,” or monitoring what you do. Th ...

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The use of social media by law enforcement has now become more of the norm rather than the exception. According to a recent survey by the IACP, 92.4% of agencies surveyed use social media. This fact doesn’t necessarily mean that every department using social media is doing so effectively. However, it does mean social media has become much more accepted and a part of how police departments communicate with the public. Law enforcement’s interest in social media was also evidenced by the large number of social media themed classes offered at the IACP Annual Conference and the large number of attendees at the sessions. Each class was well attended and comments and questions were plentiful. Law enforcement agencies use social media for a variety of reasons. Topping the list is criminal investigations followed by notifying the public of crime problems according to the recent IACP survey. Click here to see the entire 2012 IACP survey. The most common social media platforms used by law enforce ...

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Black Friday in most communities is a pretty busy day for police agencies. It is especially busy if the community has a lot of retail establishments or a mall. Dunwoody has both. To chronicle this typically busy day, the Dunwoody Police Department decided to tweet all of their calls starting the morning of Black Friday at 6am for the next 24 hours. A campaign started on Monday using their social media channels and email lists promoting the upcoming tweetathon. Several local newspapers and a couple of television stations picked up the story as well. The Uniform Patrol Sergeants for each of the two shifts were responsible for tweeting each call, which included dispatched as well as self-initiated calls. The sergeants were also responsible for responding to any questions or comments if needed. Black Friday ended up being a pretty quiet day, very non-typical for even a regular Friday. A total of 145 calls were posted on Twitter. A lot of these calls included false alarms, residential checks, and business ch ...

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Whether your department is a veteran user of social media or has just taken the plunge, the one aspect of using social media that many struggle with is content. This can be an especially difficult challenge when you are just starting out. One might think, rightly so, that the nature of law enforcement and what departments do should provide an endless supply of readymade content. While this can be true in many cases, departments should also be prepared to vary their content and include items of broad appeal to the general public based on seasonal events or monthly awareness observations. First, let’s consider seasonal events. There are many holidays, beginnings, and celebrations that your department can highlight and post information about that would be of interest to your community. Some are easy to identify such as Halloween, Christmas, July 4th, etc. Each of these provides an opportunity to share important safety tips or other information vital to the community. There are also beginning events and ...

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This session at the IACP Conference was one that I was really looking forward to. As a chief, I am all about engaging in activity that adds value to the organization. rather than wasting the time of my staff. A large audience was in attendance. Lynn Hightower, the Communications Director and PIO for the Boise, Idaho, Police Department, was the moderator. Chief Jeff Lavey of the Meridian, Idaho, Police Department was the first panelist up. Chief Lavey quickly made a point of stating social media is not a fad. Most of our officers are using social media and many citizens are talking about our departments on social media. If your department uses social media, you have the ability to control the message. Chief Lavey offered three main reasons to use social media: public awareness, public relations, and criminal investigations & crime prevention. Chief Lavey acknowledged several potential pitfalls and challenges. These include scare department resources, posts on social media channel are instant and can& ...

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One of the best values for law enforcement agencies who use social media is the interaction that takes place between the agency and members of the community. Unfortunately, many agencies that use social media platforms, like Facebook, have opted to not allow comments thereby stifling community engagement. Reasons cited for not allowing comments vary but primarily fall into two categories.  The first is the fear of criticism of the department. This will not be discussed in this post. The second reason is the fear that inappropriate comments using vulgar language, racial epitaphs, or derogatory remarks will be posted. Recently, one of the people who “likes” the Dunwoody Police Department on Facebook posted several comments which were derogatory in nature and were clearly racially insensitive. The comments were posted several times over the course of 3-4 weeks. The comments did not use profanity nor did they use any racial epitaphs. However, the comments were clearly racially biased toward Af ...

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By some estimates, 49.7% of people in the United States have a smartphone and by 2014, that number could rise to over 70%. As a result of the proliferation of smartphones, the app market has exploded. Consumers would rather click on an app on their phone or tablet to access content specifically designed for their device, rather than accessing a Web site which may be much slower and lack some of the mobile functionality. Estimates vary but many reports suggest there are over 500,000 apps for the Android and over 300,000 apps for the iPhone. In light of these staggering statistics, should your department consider getting an app and if you decide to, what are your options? First, you must decide if an app is right for your department. In making this decision, consideration must be given to smartphone and tablet usage in your community, how active your community is with social media and how active your department is with social media. Another item to consider is how often the content of the department website ...

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