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St. Baldrick’s Charity Fundraising: Thank You For Supporting Us!

Posted on March 25, 2013 by William

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There are many things we can be proud of here at PublicEngines including our products, our people, and our customers. But this last week I am particularly proud of our team’s efforts to give back to the community.

One of our company values is to be Great at Doing Good. We explain it as: “We have the opportunity to do something that matters in people’s lives. In everything we do, our mission is to do good things, and be great at doing them.” That includes our products, our services, and doing good as a company.

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Those of you that follow us know that our company supports two charities: St. Baldricks, a charity sponsoring childhood cancer research, and COPS, which stands for Concerns of Police Survivors, supporting surviving families of fallen officers.

This past week we finished our fundraising for St. Baldricks and several of us committed to shaving our heads in exchange for donations to the charity. Our original goal was to raise $3,000 and we far surpassed that, reaching almost $10,000 in donations when we were done. In the end, many of us on the team shaved our heads. One, Reyna, was brave enough to cut her long hair and donate it to Locks of Love. We even had one employee (DJ) that was not near an event but he still raised money and had his own shaving event at home!

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It was a moving experience to see the support from our friends, family, and co-workers. It was even more motivating to meet with those afflicted with childhood cancer and get a few fist bumps along the way.

It was a great time and a proud moment, and we look forward to doing it again next year. Thanks to our team for sacrificing their time and hair, and thank you to everyone who supported us. And by the way, it’s not to late to donate at the PublicEngines St. Baldrick’s page. Thanks again!

Kansas City PD uses Different Social Media Platforms to Reach and Engage Different Audiences

Posted on March 7, 2013 by Jeff Beaver

When using social media to engage the community many agencies cast a wide net, employing many platforms for maximum reach. As a result, agencies can end up using a ‘shotgun’ approach—sharing the same content/messaging and using engagement strategies across all their platforms for convenience or consistency. But because of social platforms’ different audiences and different media types such as text or video, activities and content that work well on one platform may not on another, and agencies may find it difficult to drive engagement this way.

Different Platforms, Different Purposes

Kansas City PD is using a different approach to driving community engagement in the social media sphere. In 2009, the Kansas City PD launched a Chief’s blog as a means to speak openly and directly about public affairs so that they could host and shape discussion about the PD. Since 2009, they’ve steadily been expanding their social media presence, adding different platforms to reach different audiences that they weren’t able to engage before. Just last April the department became the first in the nation to take to Pinterest, to reach and engage women—an audience that isn’t traditionally in touch with law enforcement according to Kansas PD public relations specialist Sarah Boyd.

While the Kansas City PD is active on multiple platforms–Blog, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Pinterest–each platform serves a different purpose based on its audience and functionality. For example, Twitter is used to push time-sensitive public safety/crime alerts to citizens on the go where Pinterest is used to humanize the department with interactive visuals and stoke engagement among women.

The PD takes care to tailor the content/message they share to each different platform. For example, one board on Pinterest portrays examples of heroism by its female officers. While another illustrates for community mothers of the types of home goods kids use to get high. Tailoring content and engagement produces targeted and clear communication that audiences are more receptive to than the ‘shot-gun approach’.

But how effective is this strategy, really?

While it would be more convenient to post the same content across platforms, the ‘shotgun approach’ treats social media as just another one-way broadcast medium that often fails to engage followers. For the extra effort, the Kansas PD reports high levels of social media engagement—19,804 Twitter followers, 4,442 Facebook fans, 2.3 million YouTube channel views and 881 dedicated Pinterest followers.

To learn more about strategies to maximize your agency’s social media engagement download The Definitive Guide to Social Media Engagement for Law Enforcement.

Gun Buyback Programs: Reducing Gun Violence or a PR Stunt?

Posted on February 6, 2013 by Jeff Beaver

Getting Guns Off the Streets:

A recent slew of devastating mass shootings have sparked national outcry and reinvigorated a heated debate over gun violence in America. Faced with increased pressure to respond and take action to reduce gun violence, communities are turning to “Gun Buyback” programs–with gusto- in an effort to take guns, especially those with the capacity for mass casualty, off the streets.

Since the shootings in Connecticut a few weeks ago, dozens of cities across the US are launching buy-back programs in hope that these efforts will prevent future gun-violence . In all over 30 gun buy-back events have been held nation-wide in the weeks since the gruesome Connecticut massacre. Many are being hailed a ‘successes’ by officials who tout record numbers of firearms being turned in to authorities. Just a few weeks ago, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa touted that law enforcement agents had collected 2,037 firearms at the city’s recent buy-back event–the most since it started its buy-back program in 2009.

Off the Streets or Out of the Attic?

LAPD Police Chief Charlie Beck and Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa at a buyback event in Van Nuys

While a dumpsters full of firearms looks impressive, experts dismiss the effectiveness of gun buybacks in reducing crime because these events typically attract people less likely to commit violent crimes and guns least likely to be used in a crime. According to studies most gun-related crimes are typically committed by young men with newer firearms, while gun-buyback events typically attract an older crowd turning older guns that are often not in good working condition: hunting rifles or old revolvers from someone’s attic.

Do Buybacks Make a Dent?

Here are a few stats just to have an idea of the enormity of firearms in circulation vs. those collected by buybacks:

The federal government estimates that there are currently over 310 million firearms in circulation within the US, nearly one for every man, woman and child
In the buybacks since Sandy Hook, an estimated 10,000+ guns have been collected
Studies suggest that a 10% reduction in U.S. households with guns would result in only a 3% reduction in homicides
The guns collected by LA in their latest buy-back event, sadly account for only one day’s worth of gun sales in the state of California (2,000 firearms are bought and sold every day in the state).

An Expensive PR Stunt?

Images of police officers taking back guns looks good on the evening news but with thousands spent by local governments to buy back guns and little evidence to prove that buybacks directly reduce gun violence, a gun buyback can come off as an expensive PR stunt. But doesn’t have to. While gun buybacks may not directly reduce reduce gun violence, they can be used to heighten awareness and rally the community, especially when accompanied by a grassroots outreach campaign that works with gang prevention and intervention agencies, community and religious leaders. A comprehensive outreach effort serves not only to encourage participation in neighborhoods suffering from high levels of gun violence, but also to educate communities about the risks and dangers of gun and gang violence.

What do You Say?

Do you think gun-buybacks are effective? A waste of money? PR stunts? How is your community helping to combat gun violence/crime? Share your insights and best practices in the comments section below:

The Profile of a Cyberbully

Posted on October 22, 2012 by Jeff Beaver

Around the school yard it’s easy to spot a bully, but when harassment takes place online, cyber bullies often torment their victims behind the mask of anonymity, making it difficult to hold them accountable. Just who are these cyber bullies? Are they vengeful youth lurking in online chat rooms or are they “friends” on Facebook? What’s the profile of a cyberbully?

While research suggests that anyone is just as likely to be a bully or a victim, here are a few common profiles of youth-tormenting cyberbullies:

The Peer Predator

It’s not surprising that most cyber bullies are the same age as their victims and equally as likely to be a boy or girl. These peer predators are more apt to be the Facebook “friends” of their victims. According to a 2004 study by the Journal of Adolescence, 68% of these offenders (typically age 9-14) use the Internet for four or more days per week, while those whose use the Internet most often for chat rooms are three times more likely to harass others online than those who don’t. As the peer predator passes age 15, bullying becomes more violent and often evolves into sexual harassment.

The Pedophile

On Facebook he is the dreamy 17 year-old boy or girl everyone has a crush for, in real life he is a middle-aged man, logging into Facebook from his garage to seek out shy, withdrawn, or handicapped children who are vulnerable to his advances. Most often men (though they do include women), these perverts gain the trust of their victims and convince them to take pornographic photos of themselves–which the pedophiles promptly share online with the victim’s peers. Just last week, teenager Amanda Todd killed herself after a string of harassment emanating from an incident where a mystery man posted a photo exposing the teen’s chest.

The Parent/Impersonator

Its probably a teen’s worst nightmare to be ‘friended’ online by their parent, or a friend’s parent on Facebook or Myspace. But when parents impersonate teenagers online in an attempt to take justice into their own hands or “investigate” activity in their child’s social network, it can get really nasty quick. In 2007, a Missouri mom posed as a foreign 16-year-old boy to feign interest in teenage girl Megan Meier, a former friend of her daughter’s to investigate what Megan was saying about her daughter online. After online manipulation and harassment the girl committed suicide at the Missouri mom’s urging.

Holding Cyberbullies Accountable

Too often these faceless bullies torment their victims without facing consequences for their actions. For youth victims however, their tormentors aren’t faceless: the profile of a cyberbully is often the kid sitting next to them in class, perhaps a soccer teammate, or a facebook friend, people they know but are too embarrassed to report. Stopping “the peer predator”, “the pedophile” and “parent/impersonator” and other online tormentors is possible by encouraging victims to speak out–identify and report cyberbullies to school administrators and law enforcement when necessary.

The Scoop from IACP Day1

Posted on October 1, 2012 by Jeff Beaver

Yesterday kicked off the first full day of exhibition here in San Diego at the International Association of Chiefs of Police Conference and Technology Exhibition–a key venue for law enforcement professionals to consult together and for vendors like us to exhibit game-changing technology that helps agencies accomplish their missions. So what’s the scoop, what are the trends for law enforcement and technology? After witnessing a full day of information sessions and technology exhibitions, its clear that the law enforcement professionals of 2012 are focused on technologies that facilitate:

Faster Crime/Incident Response
Data-driven approaches for intelligent policing
High mobility of communication and other technologies that enable on-duty officers to get the job done

As law enforcement professionals meander through the exhibit hall, looking for products that support these goals, they’ll find three major tech trends this year: tech products are more mobile, more social, and more data-driven.

More Mobile:

From tablet devices to mobile applications, agencies can expect to see a higher degree of mobility in technologies that connect agencies to their officers and citizens. In place of clunky, 10 pound laptops–thinner, lighter tablet devices are taking center stage for on-duty and BYOD use. In fact tech vendor Zco Corp predicts that in 2013 tablets will outsell laptop notebooks for on-duty use. Vendors are exhibiting a growing number of mobile apps that connect agencies to their citizens to prevent and quickly respond to crime such as our own TipSoft and CityConnect apps.

More Social:

Ever more agencies are using social media channels in ever-more ways to fight crime and connect with their communities. Twitter and Facebook are becoming increasingly important as tools for criminal investigations, community relations, preventing and responding to crime and crises. Mobile applications and crime analytics solutions are incorporating social media to support criminal investigations and communicate with citizens.

More Data-Driven:

While we at PublicEngines believe our crime analytics solutions are best, law enforcement pros perusing other tech vendors’ booths should expect to see a variety of solutions that underscore the growing adoption of intelligence-led policing initiatives. These “Data-Driven Approaches to Crime and Traffic Safety” , growing in popularity, are supported by an expanding market for crime analytics solutions.

Follow @CrimeReports on Twitter and check back later in the week for more updates and insights from IACP 2012