Tom Murphy (Microsoft, Dublin) writes about the extraordinary use of social media by Britain’s West Midlands Police force:
Like all police forces, they have a need to engage directly with the public. With shrinking traditional media – social media offers a real alternative, with specific opportunities of engaging with younger people – and audience that’s incredibly difficult to reach for police forces.
So far they have set-up a facebook group, a youtube channel, a plodcast series and PCTV will start-up in the new year.
And on that perennial dilemma, negative feedback:
A question from the audience asked about the dangers of getting negative comments on the FB Wall or YouTube videos and CI Payne responded:“People will say bad things about the police no matter what. This way we know what they are saying and we can respond – as long as we say something sensible.Often we don’t have to because people from the community come onto the Page and defend us – usually by talking about their own experiences with the police.”He added: ”We’re working it out as we go. I’ve got it wrong a few times, but overall it’s working. We’re talking to segments of the community we struggled to reach before” [these aren't his exact words but I hope they do him justice].
(Thanks to Robin Wilson for reporting on this Q&A exchange at a conference on 5 December.)
According to a recent Sky News report:
The force has joined the social networking and video sharing sites to engage more with the community’s young people – and it seems to be working.
The videos on the youtube channel include stuff like this one which is a behind the scenes look at a drug arrest:
It’s a fascinating experiment.
