The Social Media Beat

A lot has happened this past year when it comes to law enforcement and social media, and the experience for Richmond Police has been no different. We’ve used various social networking platforms to solve crimes; communicate better with our community; and share important information that people need to know. But I think the best way we can continue this trend nation- and world-wide, is to share our experiences and our advice with other agencies. So to that end, here are a few pieces of advice from the Richmond Police Department’s four years of using Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, Tumblr, Foursquare, Pinterest, and UStream: *Don’t disregard a post because you think it’s silly. For example: earlier this month we had four officers stack a bunch of trashcans on top of one another to help rescue two cats that had been stuck in a tree for five days. Though we got some questionable looks when we tried to explain why this was interesting or important, our Facebook fans LOVED it. ...

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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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As 2012 comes to a close, a few popular social media sites have rolled out some major changes. So, in case you missed it… Instagram updated its terms of service. Twice, actually. Instagram updated their terms of service early last week and immediately received negative feedback from users. One of the big points of contention was whether Instagram would be selling users’ photos. They then released an updated terms of service later in the week (http://instagram.com/about/legal/terms/updated/) and in a press statement noted that they would not be selling users’ photos. Twitter now allows users to download their tweet archive. Users can now get a list of all their tweets and retweets since they created their account to the present. Once you download your archive you are able to view tweets by month or search your tweets for certain keywords, hashtags, or @mentions. Twitter explains the process for downloading your archive on their blog (http://blog.twitter.com/2012/12/your-twitter-archiv ...

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If you have ever taken the time to download the complete load of information that is available to you through Facebook Insights you know that you get more than a couple of packets of information. Under “Key Metrics” alone there are 28 columns of information. Add to that seven other spreadsheets with information and you have enough data to make even the most dedicated analyzer nauseous. Good news… you don’t have to go as far as downloading all your Insights to know what is important. In my opinion, there are only five that you need to concentrate on. 1.)    People who saw your post 2.)    Shares 3.)    Comments 4.)    Likes 5.)    Virility It’s great that you may have 15,000 people who like your page, but if no one is seeing your posts, commenting on them, or sharing your information then it doesn’t really matter. Your whole reason for using a tool such as Facebook should be based ...

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After the frenzy for many agencies to get on the social media bandwagon, it seems things have slowed down a bit. Just like anything new and shiny, you want to play with it all the time at the beginning then push it aside when something else new comes along. But with social media I don’t think the shine has worn off, it’s just becoming part of our daily routine. Think back 2-3 years ago. Everyone was talking about it, whether they liked the idea or not. When I went to my first IACP Conference in Orlando in 2010, there were two social media workshops for PIO’s and we had about 50-60 people attend them.  Fast forward to this past IACP Conference in San Diego and there were full days of PIO/Social Media content almost every day and most workshops had standing room only. And from talking to those in law enforcement there, more agencies have a social media presence than didn’t at the conference.   Also, agencies are now pushing the envelope with what they are doing. Some are ...

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By now, you may have seen the photo of Officer Lawrence DePrimo of the NYPD after he coughed up 75 bucks of his own money to buy a pair of boots for a cold, barefooted homeless guy. The photo went viral after it was posted to the NYPD’s Facebook page, even landing Officer DePrimo on the Today show. It’s a great story. Made me a little verklempt, even. But at the same time, the whole thing left me asking a bunch of conflicting questions: Why did this photo cause such a sensation? Are people reacting out of surprise or affirmation or both? Was the pic a hit because it’s a side of police work we so rarely see? If so, why don’t we see more Boots DePrimos? For me, the photo seemed to illustrate what is both wrong and right with the image of police and our role in shaping that image. This kind of stuff – these random acts of kindness by officers– happen in our communities every single day. They far outnumber deeds of police misconduct or even heroism. So the question is, ...

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Today’s guest post comes from Julie Parker, Director of the Media Relations Division for the Prince George's County, Maryland, Police Department. Responsible for media and public relations in a dynamic environment, Julie has incorporated the modern advances of social media in law enforcement that have created greater access, transparency, and accountability for the community and media. Julie serves as the PGPD's representative on the Crime Solvers, Inc. Board of Directors, a non-profit organization of community and business leaders that encourages greater community cooperation to close unsolved crimes.  Before joining the department, Julie worked as an Emmy-award winning general assignment reporter and anchor for ABC7 News & NewsChannel 8 in the Washington, D.C. market for 14 years. For the first time, the Prince George’s County, Maryland, Police Department, the 28th largest police department in the nation, held a virtual ride along called the PGPDTweetAlong. Armed only with an ...

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As most of us know by now, Facebook is regularly making changes to how the site works and where your content shows up. By the time you figure something out, something else has changed. Well, we’ve recently discovered one change that has turned out to be quite positive. We allow our fans to comment on all aspects of our Facebook page and when it’s a complimentary post, we click the ‘like’ button to let them know we appreciate their post. Thanks to Facebook’s recent changes, all of our other fans now see when we like something. It’s similar to what they would see if a Facebook friend of theirs liked the latest Twilight movie review or a post by any other business. Similar to the Richmond Police Department’s own posts, our “likes” now appear in our fans’ user feeds as well. One of the most recent and best examples we’ve had with this occurred during the Thanksgiving holiday, which is slightly ironic because that’s usually a time wh ...

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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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Social media is an ever-moving target with new sites springing up, old sites disappearing, and functionality constantly changing. Here are just a couple recent changes and updates from the social media sphere. Facebook added a share button to its mobile site and apps. Facebook sharing isn’t just for computer users anymore. The addition of the share button on these platforms makes it much easier for smartphone and tablet users to share content from their newsfeed directly to their own timeline. Pinterest released secret boards and business pages. If you were attempting to create a board, and weren’t ready to release it, or if you simply had a Pinterest board of pins that you wanted to keep private, there was really no way for you to do so. Until a couple of weeks ago. Pinterest now allows users to pin to “secret” boards. And while they were coming up with new things, Pinterest also created business pages. Pinterest business pages allow users to enter a business name instead of a ...

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