Social Media Use by Public Safety Agencies

A number of public sector agencies have embraced Facebook. Some have a fairly interactive presence, a number of “fans,” and do post useful information. Anecdotally, it seems that far fewer use Twitter. But many of those using Twitter are having true, real-time engagements with their constituencies.

Some strong examples of effective Twitter users are the Los Angeles Fire Department (@LAFD and @LAFDTalk), Toronto Police Services (@TorontoPolice), and the Merseyside Police in the UK (@MerseyPolice). Each of these agencies uses Twitter differently but effectively.

The Los Angeles Fire Department uses their two Twitter accounts for different purposes. @LAFD reports on breaking incidents in progress and public safety notifications. These range from initial reports of large fires within the 485 square miles protected by the LAFD to proactive media contacts for incidents that present photo ops. LAFD has tweeted numerous photo opportunities for journalists including a brief description of the event, best location to access the scene, and even the radio channel(s) in use at the incident. @LAFDtalk is used for general information to the media and public not directly related to a specific incident. The LAFD is maintaining an interactive, extremely open, cooperative, friendly, and informative face to the public, and importantly, directly to the media. This attitude is then conveyed by the media in their reports to the public. What a contrast this presents to those public safety agencies who choose to encrypt their radio channels, shun or avoid the media wherever possible, and keep their operations quiet! Which type of agency do you think the media and public trust, and which types that everyone thinks has something to hide?

Toronto Police Services uses social media extensively. During the recent G8/G20 summit in Toronto, TPS was tweeting almost constantly, even before protesters became unruly. TPS posted traffic conditions, road closures, and other genuinely useful information. They also retweeted public comments, good and bad, for all the world to see. TPS also used Facebook to engage in two-way communication with the public, and again, left posted on their Facebook wall both positive and negative comments from the public. TPS seemed to enjoy an extraordinary number of positive comments from the public around the world about their handling of the summit, and their savvy use of social media was a big reason for that positive outlook. TPS encouraged the public to submit photos of protesters engaged in violence and illegal activity, and a great number of photos were sent in. These are being used to investigate and prosecute lawlessness at the summit. This was a pretty astonishing use of social media for real time engagement with the public at large, and use of social media, smart phones, and other technology to get genuinely useful intelligence from the public at large. Many public sector agencies could learn valuable lessons from the TPS, both from the summit and on an ongoing basis.

A number of police agencies in the UK are effectively using social media as well. The Merseyside Police are one example. They post crime alerts, suspect descriptions, missing persons, and even job openings via Twitter.

Each of these agencies has taken the time to build a custom Twitter background for their profile page and uses custom icons or avatars. They take social media seriously, and they take their relationship with the citizens they serve, as well as the media, seriously as well.

Twitter has also seen a lot of usage as a quasi-emergency notification system as well. This has been very effective in the Haiti earthquake, during and after recent tornados in Arkansas, and elsewhere. While Twitter has some very real value in this application, one only has to look at the recurring appearance of Twitter’s dreaded “fail whale” during the recent World Cup matches to realize that Twitter is not ready for primary status in emergency notification. However, if used judiciously with its inherent (at least currently) limitations in mind, Twitter can be a valuable adjunct to more mission critical means of communication with the public.

My hat is off to these agencies and the many others who have embraced social media as yet another tool to truly engage with the public and the media.

@LAFD – 8,238 followers, following 3

@LAFDtalk – 4,562 followers, following 4,976

@TorontoPolice – 6,003 followers, following 813

@MerseyPolice – 976 followers, following 22

Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2010 Gary Oldham

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