There was an article in the Calgary Herald last week espousing the important role social media plays with the Calgary Police Department (CPD).
The article tells the story of how a missing teen was found in a matter of minutes thanks to a CPD constable posting the young girl’s description on the department’s Facebook and Twitter accounts.
In 14 minutes, the girl’s description had been shared more than 250 times on Facebook alone. This is amazing.
What is more amazing is that there remains to be several law enforcement entities that are oblivious to the obvious benefits of social media and the myriad of ways it can make police officer’s jobs easier.
If you search for RCMP accounts on Twitter, you would find a whole whack of national, regional and local detachments utilizing the social media service. Twitter is perhaps the easiest and quickest way for someone to get information out to the public, as ‘tweeting’ something like a missing person or wanted criminal description is instant.
If you tried to search for Alberta RCMP, you wouldn’t come up with much. And if you looked for Cochrane RCMP, you’d come up with even less.
Alberta RCMP does have a Twitter account, but it has not even sent out one tweet.
If you looked for a Facebook account, all you would come up with is the RCMP Musical Ride and the RCMP Regimental Pipes and Drums Band.
Cochrane RCMP is no better. No Facebook, no Twitter…no social media.
The Cochrane Eagle does receive local RCMP (and many more from throughout the province) releases when they are looking for the culprit of a crime or when there is a serious traffic incident, and at times these releases are distributed in a timely fashion. But more often than not, we get these releases – suspected criminal descriptions – days, or even weeks, after the break-in, assault or hit-and-run occurred.
Why is this?
It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to understand that when it comes to law enforcement, time is of the essence. The quicker a description is released to the public, better the chances are of finding that person, whether they be a criminal or missing person. One need only look at the above example with CPD.
Media release to newspapers, however, can only do so much. In communities like Cochrane, where there are only weekly newspaper offerings, many of these releases do not hit the public for several days.
Social media, on the other hand, reach the public instantly. And for newspapers like the Eagle, these social media sites are a great forum to keep track of what is going on in the community from a law enforcement point of view. And when there’s a Twitter and Facebook account to follow, there emerges opportunities for RCMP information to branch out even further with the help of local media, essentially creating a win-win for all involved.
It’s no secret that not all in law enforcement are social butterflies…in fact, very few come close to such a portrayal. But much like other businesses out there, police departments are hiring communications personnel to handle this type of service for them, or recruiting local officers who possess the greatest social characteristics.
Most police officers would sooner pull traffic duty than to have to speak to the media, which is both understandable and unfortunate.
On paper is seems like a no-brainer that law enforcement and media should work well together to achieve a common goal – find the bad guy or that missing person.
There’s no shame in seeking the public’s help, because in the end, all that matters is that people are safe.
The mean streets of Cochrane may not be that mean in the grand scheme of things, but when something does happen, it’s important to act immediately, and platforms like Twitter and Facebook make that possible. They are tools that should be used, and when they are not, you have to ask yourself, why?
Is social media perfect? No. But neither is law enforcement.
