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Law Enforcement to Community Communication – dialogue, not monologue

Posted on April 8, 2013 by Brad Rutledge

For many law enforcement agencies, when asked if they have a social media program, their answer will be something like, “yes, we have a Facebook page, and Twitter account.” A good start, but as a standalone, this doesn’t exactly define a program.

Many agencies struggle to gain traction once they launch an agency Facebook page. Take for example, the Niagara County Sheriff’s Office that was recently featured in the PublicEngines Definitive Guide to Social Media Engagement for Law Enforcement Agencies 2013. The agency launched its Facebook page, but after three years, only had about 200 Likes, and almost no engagement or interaction with the community. Almost by accident, the Agency went from 200 Likes to several hundreds when hurricane Sandy hit as people in the community were searching for credible sources about the storm and public safety issues.

We can learn from the spike in Likes and engagement Niagara experienced, and it can be done without the help of a hurricane!

The Guide to Social Media Engagement list six ideas for growing your audience and engaging with them:

Hold an Launch Event. Many agencies have successfully hosted a social media launch event (Facebook) by tying into an existing community events. Another example was when the Virginia State Police Department launched its Facebook page on the anniversary of a community-known unsolved homicide.
Obtain Publicity. Most agencies have good working relationship with local media. By issuing a news announcement & having news stories about the social media initiative, agencies can gain awareness, likes/followers, and begin the engagement process.
Promote Social Media Profiles on Agency Website. In addition to making people aware the profiles exist, agencies can also ask questions on the website, and ask the community to provide comments on its social sites.
Use Email to Promote Social Sites & Engage. From including links to social sites in email signatures, to direct outreach emails asking for Likes, or community-related questions, email can be a great way to communicate.
Maintaining Engagement. By providing consistent and predicable information that is useful, actionable, compelling, and sharable with others, fans and followers will begin to anticipate and look forward to these posts. Engagement is sure to follow.
Use CityConnect. All citizens to access all of the agencies social media and web accounts to citizens through their smart phones to make connecting and engagement easy, and always available. CityConnect is an agency-branded mobile app that does just that. From allowing people to deliver crime tips, to accessing CrimeReports, and even for emergency updates, there is no better way to connect with people today than through their smart phone.

The full Guide contains more details, and useful case examples. You can download it here.

Using Social Media in Law Enforcement, a Guide

Posted on March 4, 2013 by Brad Rutledge

Most organizations over the past several years have been asking a lot of questions about using social media. For many, there’s a general feeling that their organization should be doing something. That’s a good start, and many stall out there, because of not knowing what to do.

Thankfully, now that organizations have been implementing various social media strategies for a few years, we now have the opportunity to learn from what others have done right, and of course what they’ve done wrong.

I’ve worked with a variety of companies over the years on developing and implementing a social media strategy. I wondered how unique Law Enforcement would be in its approach to using social media, which is why I was excited to review The Definitive Guide to Social Media Engagement for Law Enforcement Agencies, published by PublicEngines. Below are a few things I’ve learned so far.

The Same Pitfalls

It makes sense to learn from The Guide that Law Enforcement Agencies face similar hurdles, challenges, and make the same mistakes as retailers, businesses, other government agencies, and even celebrities, when trying to use social media. The Guide outlines three common mistakes:

The Set-it and Forget-it Agency. We’ve all seen examples of this when we visit a site or page, and the content is old – like months, or even over a year since the last post. In many ways, a neglected site, is worse than no site at all.
The Spammer Agency. When I see a company that starts posting too much useless information, I imagine that someone said we need to post 14 times per day, and they purchased some software tool that allows them to pre-load hundreds of posts. I typically turn these alerts off, and it leaves me with a bad taste in my mouth.
The Serial Experimenter Agency. In this instance, you can see there is no real plan in place – just ideas. While the agency is making attempts to do something it comes off as unorganized, confused, and uncontrolled. It can’t be maintained, and the audience goes away.

These are similar issues any organization faces, so it represents lessons we can learn from. On the flip side, there are some specific things that are unique to Law Enforcement that need to be considered in your planning.

Unique to Law Enforcement

In the Identify Your Goals and Objectives section of The Guide, I was thrilled to see specific examples that are unique to Law Enforcement. In my experience, setting goals and objectives can be extremely difficult because social media is so new, and everything moves so quickly. The examples can help to kick-start the process of designing a program that will work for your agency. The Guide lists goal examples of creating public awareness of the agency’s policing/safety efforts, creating greater transparency and more open dialogue, to encouraging citizens to help with crime stopper efforts through tips, and even to improve police services through greater collaboration.

For more information on these topics, I encourage you to download The Definitive Guide to Social Media Engagement for Law Enforcement Agencies here.

How to Leverage Social Media As a Natural Disaster Response Mechanism

Posted on October 31, 2012 by Jeff Beaver

This week “frankenstorm” Sandy is wreaking havoc across the east coast: flooding subways , bringing down the power grid, cutting phone lines, overloading the phone networks and making mainstream media inaccessible to many affected by the hurricane. In the mass of confusion and chaos, citizens left with their mobile devices remain connected to friends, family and information by turning to social media.

During a natural disaster, social media can play a vital role connecting citizens to emergency response agencies; in fact through people’s widespread use of Facebook and Twitter, people are beginning to expect it. In a 2010 study by the Red Cross, three-fourths of respondents indicated they would expect an emergency response agency to respond within an hour of posting a call for help on a social media platform. That same study showed Facebook and Twitter as the platforms of choice when it came to receiving and posting information relating to citizens’ safety during an emergency.

Through the proliferation of Facebook and Twitter, emergency response agencies can no longer ignore the importance of social media in managing and responding to natural disasters. So here are a few ways agencies can leverage social media to their advantage:

Real-time Broadcasting

In the vacuum of information following a natural disaster, an agency can become an authoritative hub of disaster-related information by pushing frequent, real-time updates, warnings, and directives through your agency’s Facebook, Twitter and Text notification service (if you have one).

Share concise summary points of news briefings to reassure and aviod confusion
Host a live feed of news conferences on your agency Facebook page
Post safety advisories
Alert citizens that first-responders are on their way posts such as:

Real-time information pushed through agency social media accounts and even SMS text or email, allows an agency to directly reach those who might be without access to mainstream media, and provide them with relevant information for their safety. Reassuring the public via social media additionally reduces the volume of inbound calls of concerned citizens jamming cellular networks and switchboards–liberating phones for emergency personnel use.

Myth-busting

It’s no secret that fears breeds panic–and panic can breed misinformation. In any disaster rumors are bound to circulate, making it difficult to control messaging, inform and reassure the public. Social media poses an additional challenge: anyone can say anything. So how do you squash rumors before they make a headline on mainstream media or induce rash action born of panic? By maintaining a steady push of real-time disaster-related information on Facebook and Twitter an agency establishes a direct line of communication that will reach and reassure the public first. By supplying the public with accurate and concise tweets and posts, information will be less likely to be misinterpreted when shared online. Additionally, monitoring relevant twitter hashtags during an event such as #hurricane #sandy or #earthquake, your agency can identify when a story has gone awry and clarify.

Monitoring and Responding

Equally as important as communicating with citizens, is leveraging social media to listen and respond. With citizens often being first on the scene, their sharing, tweeting and texting of information is making them part of a large response network who report incidents. Agencies can leverage this team of first responders, monitoring information shared on social sites for:

Identifying pleas for help from citizens with perhaps no other means of contacting the agency during a disaster
Crisis Mapping: Identifying and monitoring hazards, dangers and incidents reported by citizen observers.

Connect with your Citizens

While social media can be incredibly useful during an emergency, it can only be effective when agencies invest in building social media connection with their citizens before disaster strikes.

If your agency doesn’t already have the bare minimum social media sites, like Facebook and Twitter, we suggest that you invest the time now. Once your account is created, start with a goal of updating it four times per day with relevant, “everyday” information – like road closures, suspects on the loose, or calls for tips. Also important is to make sure your citizenry is well aware of the accounts and follows them. Minimal effort is required to promote them – think town hall meetings, decals on police cruisers, and in community newsletters. There are a lot of other ways to promote and drive adoption of agency-related social media sites.

Already doing this?

Let us know how you’re making out. How did you start your social media efforts, how much time and resources are dedicated to it, and what has the community response been? We’d love to hear from you. Use the comments section below to share your best practices.

Social Media: What Puts Officers and the Agency at Risk?

Posted on October 9, 2012 by Jeff Beaver

Sargeant Nasuti posted pictures with underage women and liquor

In previous posts, we’ve highlighted the role social media can play in assisting agencies’ policing initiatives and building trust with the community, and for good reason: it has become incredibly useful in policing. In fact, a March 2012 study by LexisNexis of over 1,200 federal, state and local law enforcement professionals showed that nearly 7 out of 10 respondents believed that social media helps solve crimes faster than traditional methods alone. But while officers may be using Facebook and Twitter to help close cases on-duty, their online activities off-duty may be putting themselves and their agency at risk.

Undermining Safety and Agency Credibility:

Perhaps not heard as often as headlines such as “Facebook Photos Help Police Catch Party Burglars“, occasionally we hear stories of social media posts getting officers and their agencies into trouble. Unfortunately the very tools officers use to target suspects can be used against them by the very criminals they are investigating. In 2011, Maricopa County Sheriffs arrested a suspect on suspicion of DUI and found a CD containing the names and photographs of over 30 Phoenix PD patrol and undercover officers–all obtained from Facebook. Social media sharing can not only compromise the safety of officers, it can undermine the credibility and integrity of the agency to the public when ill-advised posts and pictures make a public appearance. Just last week, Detroit’s Chief of Police was busted after pictures emerged on twitter exposing an affair with a department subordinate. For a community already demoralized by financial woes and previous scandals, the photos were a kick in the gut.

Tips for Online Officer Safety:

While your agency should strongly consider a social media policy that dictates acceptable activities for off-duty officers and staff, here are 3 smart tips for keeping your social media sharing safe and clean.

1. Figure out Your Privacy Settings: On Facebook and other networking platforms, set your settings so that only your “friends” can see the information you post, the pages you like, etc. Look through all the apps you might have and lock them down as well. Remember that information you share can be shared by others, so be selective in your social networking.

2. Don’t Mix Personal with Professional Content: Keep two accounts, one for the professional and the other for the regular guy or gal that you are off the job. Refrain from posting information or photos about your personal life (especially of the family) on your professional twitter or Facebook accounts and keep your professional contacts from meshing with your personal ones online.

3. Don’t Post, ‘Like’ or Tweet Anything Your Grandma Wouldn’t Approve Of: Chances are if granny wouldn’t approve, your agency wouldn’t either. Keeping it clean will help maintain your agency’s credibility and trust with the community and will keep you from losing your job like this cop, who mistakenly believed “what happens on Facebook, stays on Facebook”.

Feed a Family, Feed a Community

Posted on April 27, 2010 by Christa Miller

Photo by Matt Hagen via Flickr

Remember Bozeman? The Montana city with so much social media controversy? First, the town was called out all over the Web for demanding not only access to its employees’ social pages, but also their account passwords. Then, a Bozeman police officer resigned after public outcry over his poorly worded Facebook status update.

Bozeman police are again in the news, but not for social media. This time, the highlight is for an officer who went beyond his sworn duties to help a fellow human being—after he’d arrested him.

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