Best Police Social Media practice across Europe

Have you been watching the rate of uptake in new media changing rapidly as each new form emerges? Have you heard of new uses for social media and wondered if your organization could also benefit? Do you feel that you need some guidelines in adapting your policies to cope with the widespread use of social media? Perhaps now is the right time to take a look at the way police forces across Europe have adapted to the phenomenon of social media

First some facts about the growth of social media:

  • It took radio 38 years to reach 50 million listeners.
  • Terrestrial TV took 13 years to reach 50 million users.
  • The Internet took four years to reach 50 million users.
  • In less than nine months, Facebook added 100 million users.

In the 2012 document by COMPOSITE Project titled Best Practice in Police Social Media Adaptation, the document describes the best practice of European police forces in adapting social media. According to Russell Webster in a blog post, the report’s findings are of particular interest to a British audience because they are based on different approaches to social media across Europe bolstered by an additional focus on the UK because of the riots study.

The researchers identified nine key themes:

  1. Social media as a source of criminal information
  2. Having a voice in social media
  3. Social media to push information
  4. Social media to leverage the Wisdom of the Crowd
  5. Social media to interact with the public
  6. Social media for community policing
  7. Social media to show the human side of policing
  8. Social media to support police IT infrastructure
  9. Social media for efficient policing

If you want to find out more, see the article titled Best Police Social Media practice across Europe by Russell Webster