Comments on: Twitter: Not If, but How

By: Cops 2.0 » Blog Archive » Big Brother vs. public safety

Cops 2.0 » Blog Archive » Big Brother vs. public safety — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 16:15:14 +0000

[...] a previous post I questioned the value of a Twittering police department not following its followers back. The response from @ShawneePD (actually the city of Shawnee, Oklahoma’s Chief Information [...]

By: Stephen Nolen

Stephen Nolen — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 00:37:32 +0000

Not sure about differences re sworn or not for me – I was simply listening to input from others which actually changed my mind. I would imagine others in law enforcement would have less concern of being followed by other agencies than an independent citizen from the stereotypical stance though.

I would say transferring the community relations interaction is definitely harder online without the face to face personal touch, not impossible but harder for sure. I also believe there is no separating the Police or Fire from the City, we are all one service organization and should interact as such.

By: Christa Miller

Christa Miller — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 23:13:42 +0000

Hmm. Guess I have grown comfortable working around cops. If my local PD followed me back I would be glad they wanted to listen! (Then I would probably forget they were paying attention, LOL. Unless of course they were interacting. But if they were… hmm, I guess it depends on how comfortable administrators are entrusting their agency’s “brand” to a single person. The best community relations officers remain friendly but still with professional boundaries. Is this harder to transmit online? Do you think it makes a difference that you are a civilian representative rather than sworn?

By: Stephen Nolen

Stephen Nolen — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 23:02:08 +0000

RE Big Brother – Originally I thought we may follow back but searched a bit and posed the question both online and offline. I did get several comments that some would feel ‘uncomfortable’ with the “ShawneePD” following them. The Orwellian idea I guess that the authority may be watching their every tweet thus the big brother analogy.

We do monitor all @ replies with TweetLater. I plan on posting some questions in the near future with possibly link backs to local news threads or blog posts.

By: Christa Miller

Christa Miller — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 22:47:10 +0000

Stephen, thanks for explaining why @ShawneePD is not following back. That’s very helpful. Curious about specifics of the “big brother” feedback — can you discuss? If not, email me?

By: Stephen Nolen

Stephen Nolen — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 20:07:36 +0000

Good post and nice informative site. I turned up the Shawnee Ok Twitter function a few months ago and the following continues to grow. We do not follow back at this time based on some ‘big brother’ feedback I received but agree the process needs to be bi-directional.

Hope to get there soon – I have to get the local PD to better understand and use the tool for special situations such as Crime alerts, Amber alerts, and input back from the public.