Advice to Neighbourhood Police officers on how to use Twitter

Why should Neighbourhood Police Officers use Twitter?

Are you a Neighbourhood Police Officer? How many people turned up at your last local meeting or surgery? Ten or fifteen if you are lucky. The Government expects you to engage with the community. It is an essential part of your job but at present you are reaching less than 1% of your local population.

Some officers will say that they speak to a lot of their local public when on patrol, but what about the people that go to work outside your patrol area 9am to 5pm Monday to Friday and when they come home, close the door, have a meal and watch TV? How do your reach the rest of the people you serve.

When I was a Sergeant in Surbiton South West London for two weeks I flooded an area with police officers to deal with a burglary problem. Our property store officer lived down one of the streets in that area. He overheard us talking about what we were doing. His comment was 'I never see police down my road'. I was shocked. I personally had patrolled that street on foot four times that day. Officers had regularly walked down the road over the past two weeks yet his perception was that his street was never policed. By using twitter you can show many more of your local residents how active Police are in their area and upturn this negative perception.

If you are using Twitter as an official Neighbourhood Police account then you have to make it interesting. Your local public want to know what their police officers are doing. Tell them. It is that simple. Use your twitter account as a sort of diary. You are limited to 140 characters so keep entries brief.

"Arrested two youths for Graffiti behind Tescos Supermarket in Newtown High Street. "

"I had words with a group of lads playing football against the wall of the Newton care home. Told them where to play. #Police"

"Dealt with a traffic collision in Newton Gardens. Drunk driver arrested. He knocked down a lamp post. #Police"

"Executed a drugs warrant in Newtown Estate. Three bricks of cannabis found. Two arrests made. #Police"

"Issued six speeding tickets near Newtown Primary School this morning. 4 were local people. Slow down near the School. #Police"

"Newton Police station custody full this morning, 4 for shoplifting, 1 for fraud & 8 for assault. It was a busy Friday night #Police"

People use 'Twitter search' to find out what is going on locally. It is a bit like using Google. You want people to find your messages, your tweets. Try and put a location in each message. In the examples above I have used the location name Newtown. Any local person searching twitter using the word 'Newtown' will find your messages even though they may not be looking for them. When they realise that the Police are using twitter the normal reaction is, 'that's cool the police are on twitter' and then press the follow button to start receiving your daily messages.

If there is room at the end of your message add the word #Police with the hash symbol at the beginning of the word. People who use twitter deploy the hash tag in front of words to help find information on certain topics easier when using Twitter Search.

Use twitter to make your job easier. Tell people about local crime, why it occurred and how they can prevent themselves becoming the next victim. The less crime you report and have to investigate more time you will have to do proactive work. Send out messages on twitter like these examples

"Reported a Burglary in Newtown Ave. They got in through open front windows. Don't be the next victim. Close your windows. #police"

"Reported a theft from a parked car at Newtown Railway Station. Handbag stolen. Don't leave valuables in view in a car. #police"

"Another Sat Nav has just been stolen from a car in Newtown central car park. The thief saw the holder on the window. #police"

Your Police Force website has some good information on it. When linking to crime prevention advice pages copy the internet address of that page into your twitter message. Put the link in the middle of your tweet not end. If you put the link at the end of a tweet it will be cut in half or deleted when it gets retweeted (RT) forwarded to other peoples followers.

"Reported a Burglary in Newtown Ave http://dld.bz/ahVPE They got in through open front windows. Don't be the next victim. Close your windows."

"Reported a theft from a parked car at Newtown Railway Station. Handbag stolen. http://dld.bz/ahVPP Don't leave valuables in view in a car"

"Another Sat Nav has just been stolen from a car in Newtown central car park. http://dld.bz/ahVPP The thief saw the holder on the window. #police"

Many officers are not sure what they can and cannot say in a Twitter message. Obviously personal data must not be used. You can say "I reported a Burglary in Newtown Ave. Credit cards were stolen" but not "I reported a Burglary at 341 Newtown Ave. Mrs Karen Smith had her credit cards stolen". If you are reporting on arrests only give information on completed cases and not those where there is outstanding lines of investigation. If someone is charged with an offence any member of the public can find this information at the court hearing so this information is in the public domain and can be used on Twitter.

When should you send out messages on twitter? Because people mainly use their mobile phones to read their Twitter messages this means that they normally can only see the most recent ones sent over the past two hours. You cannot normally see all of that days messages. That means tweet messages have a limited life span. Many companies ban the use of mobile phones in the work place. Most people read twitter going to work, on their lunch break and going home. Therefore to get maximum exposure to your messages try to send them out at 7.30am 12noon and 5pm.

This does not mean that you physically have to start typing at those times. Twitter messages can be scheduled to go out at whatever time or day you want. I personally use www.socialoomph.com to schedule all my tweets but there are other free software options like www,hootsuite.com www.tweetdeck.com and www.cootweet.com.

I hope you have found these beginners tips on how to use twitter useful

Craig Moore

www.multizone.co.uk