When transparency makes you want to hide
Those of us who applaud organizational use of social media talk a lot about “transparency.” A company or government agency that allows its employees to blog or tweet, under their own names, about their lives and jobs is said to make us trust them more. It’s humans caring about what other humans experience. What could be simpler?
Too much transparency?
In August I blogged, also with regard to transparency, about a police chief friend who “went dark” on Twitter because a citizen had complained about some tweets he’d made off hours, with regard to his life outside of law enforcement.
The other day another friend said something similar. His story went like this:
I had some citizens that were giving me info via Twitter [referring to] what they saw as a problem. I took the info and told them we were following up on it. We already were and it was drug related. When these folks didn’t see immediate reaction from LE they sort of took it out on me personally and my agency via Twitter posts. I replied with a professional, but possibly a bit stern reply….
That officer, Lt. Chris Mouser, is about as transparent as you can reasonably expect from a 17-year veteran of law enforcement. He tweets about his faith, his family, sometimes about his job as a patrol division commander. From what I can tell, he’s a good guy. Yet his human-ness was not enough for his critics.
Or was it too much?
Some people need authorities, not other people
I have wondered whether transparency is as valuable as progressive police chiefs, journalists, watchdog groups, and others tell us it is. While I think organizational transparency is absolutely valuable, personal transparency is a little more of a gray area.
Look at any log of 911 calls and you quickly see that many callers are looking for, in essence, stand-in parents. They want police to help them control their kids, take their medications, make sense of their lives.
And just as you don’t want to know about your parents’ sex life, many citizens don’t want to know that their police are anything but police. Personal details make them feel insecure, as if finding out that a cop has the same family problems they do makes him or her less able to handle their problems.
Says Mouser,
I find it much easier to speak with people on Twitter and [Facebook] when they are not from my town. When they live here they tend to turn it all into a work issue that I feel responsible for acting upon. They also expect me to talk/act a certain way…
Anticipating the haters
Social media can be a force multiplier. Cops can get the word out quickly and efficiently about problems in their communities. But when community members themselves are critical of those efforts, it’s all too easy for officers to develop “bunker mentality.” As Mouser puts it,
I just wanted to interact with people and see what was going on, and it got turned into me being on duty while on Twitter. I understand after nearly 20 years in Law Enforcement I am on duty all the time, but social media seemed to be a good outlet to interact with others without being in public. I literally avoid going out in public when I’m off as to avoid work when I’m off….
He’s not alone there. I’ve heard that said more than once by now. So rather than take up the old saw about “Take nothing personally,” law enforcement agencies should instead support their officers with policy and best practices.
Indeed, arguably Mouser’s agency needs a presence on Twitter, at the very least a policy in place for individual officers who identify themselves and their locations. How much should go into the policy? Start with questions like:
- How do we handle tips via social sites?
- Who will maintain the official presence?
- What about when they’re off duty?
- On or off duty, how much should they personally be responsible for, and how should they be responsible for it?
- How should they handle unhappy citizens—especially if their personal and professional lives are blended in one account? (Should their lives be blended?) Can they block or unfriend abusive citizens?
Some citizens will never be satisfied, either because they didn’t like police to begin with, or because they’re just disagreeable people. But just as training officers prepare recruits to deal with them on the street, all officers need preparation to deal with them in the far less cut-and-dried online world too.
What else would you add to the list of policy questions?
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Founder Christa M. Miller is a content creator and strategist (i.e. a writer who helps you figure out the best ways to use her writing) who specializes in law enforcement and digital forensics.
Christa,
very nice article and I agree to a certain point. I feel that if a police officer is going to get involved in social media then he/she is going to have to realize he/she is “putting” themselves on the web. They have to make a decision to be private and take appropriate action, or put themselves out there. Because they represent a law enforcement agency off duty they will have to behave appropriately in social sites as they would at bars, football games, etc. There really is no difference, except they are communicating with people in a different communication channel, the web.
I agree all businesses need to implement a social media policy to ensure they are pointing out to employees that the behavior that will get them in trouble, is the same type of bad behavior that will get them at trouble at work. But, it needs to be communicated.
I think some people feel that if they are on the web they can hide and they should not be held accountable, but that is no more. The web is large and actions/behaviors poor or good spread fast on the web. One should be quite carful what they do online and not have the preconceived notion they are anonymous.
Thank you Christa for this article and as always very nice job.
Mike
Michael Vallez´s last blog ..Facebook Fan Page Basics-101!
Thanks Mike! It’s not that I was arguing that police should be able to say anything they want — not at all! Just that maybe officers with professional accounts need to have personal ones, not tweet everything from one account. Like @TrafficServices/@104kdrive or @APOAVoice/@TRLeveque.
And you are totally, totally right about COMMUNICATING the policy once implemented. Social media is like any other aspect of police work — needs to be trained on for cops to be effective!
yep, cops should be able to tweet and facebook, but they do have remember that it is a public forum.
Mike
Michael Vallez´s last blog ..R-E-S-P-E-C-T!
My blog is purely focused on a narrow area of my work experience. I think a huge problem with social media is that it’s all over the place. If someone is interested in your quilting designs, they probably don’t care about the PTA meeting you just went to. I don’t think anyone who enjoys reading about what happens to me at work is particularly interested in my religious views or favorite music album. I don’t understand why anyone thinks law enforcement media should contain anything but law enforcement material. I don’t include grandma’s chocolate chip cookie recipe in robbery reports and I doubt anyone else does either, why do it with your law enforcement blog?
I have a private Facebook account for my friends and family. That seems to be a more appropriate place to talk about PTA meetings and recipes.
Roanoke Cop´s last blog ..Drunk in Public
Roanoke, yup, that’s an important point — knowing how the tools work and what each is for. Blogs should indeed be focused. Even among LE blogs I have noticed focus, from “what happens at work” to “issues faced by cops.”
I think most people, not just limited to cops, jump on social media because they think they “should” be there, but otherwise aren’t really sure what they intend to get out of it, and they do end up in that “all over the place” whirlwind — which can end up hurting them.
BTW I admit on Twitter, I do like to see LE friends talk about enjoying chocolate chip cookies… it’s a little easier to relate to than “I arrested the fourth dirtbag in a row last night,” which I respect, but maintains the usual boundaries… whereas knowing, here’s a cop whose favorite cookie is the same as mine, and oh by the way, is also a parent of two young kids, actually makes me more likely to go read their blog, even if the blog itself is purely LE. There’s context to those street experiences, you know?
But like I blogged here, I know not everyone feels the same way!
This was a particularly helpful article. Thank you.
One issue I’d include in the policy questions is the expectation of the off-duty LEs to deal with mentions of possibly illegal acts they might encounter on the social media feeds. Although it might seem that physical space rules apply, in social media, this might not be so simple. Many jurisidictions, people from all over the world, etc. Some priority scaling is required. Otherwise, you can get quite tired if having to report every possibly illegal activity that might been tweeted, etc.
I am a civilian analyst and, thus, not expected to act as a “cop”. I have a wide latitude in the reporting requirements as a citizen.
Jonathan D. Abolins´s last blog ..Getting back to the blog after a summer hiatus
Great point, Jon — you mean the 14yo who leaves a status update about being too drunk to stand, or a tweet about a possible burglary in progress? That kind of thing? I think this is especially salient to “specialist” officers; I’m going to pick on SROs because of the comment exchange with Scott Mills over here — I can see an ill-informed parent “expecting” that officer to have seen and taken immediate action about the drinking 14yo.
Here is where open, regular dialogue with the community will help refine everyone’s expectations and responsibilities, as well as channels: are existing ones enough, or do more need to be added? While it should be obvious that officers cannot monitor every situation all the time, as in real life, “There’s never a cop around when you need one.” At that point it becomes about convincing civilians to do their own monitoring and reporting through whichever channels are most convenient/efficient, yes?
Christa, your examples are among the situations which I had in mind. They present several problems, including some people thinking you should act right away in a particular role.
I also was thinking about less real-time indications of possible crimes. E.g., An tagged photo from a month or so ago showing underage drinking or illegal (in applicable jurisdiction) fireworks use.
More tricky might be seeing photos of a Facebook friend and seeing some suspicious bruises partially covered by makeup. Do you respond as a friend and try to see what’s happening, dropping suggestions for counselling and other domestic violence references? Or do go into “cop” mode and start treating it as a DV crime?
I’ll give a non-social media example. I had civilian EMT-A training years ago. One day, while on a train leaving NYC, a female passenger in the same carriage took ill, losing consciousness. The railway personnel radioed for medical assistance at the next station. There, two paramedics boarded the carriage and tended to the woman. One was a Police EMT, the other a civilian EMS paramedic. The civie tended to the patient, who regaining consciousness, in the same manner I was trained, dealing with her as a sick person. His questions were basic medical diagnostic questions. His examination of the patient followed the same paths as I had been trained.
The LE EMT tended to her as a drug suspect who was ill. The first thing the LE EMT does is reach for the patient’s arms and examine them for needle marks; then the legs and soem other areas. He asked questions more along LE lines: “Is there anything you ingested today that we should know about? Is there anything you want to tell us before I look in you bag? It will better for you if you tell us now if you’ve taken any drugs than if we learn that later.” It was quite striking how different but coordinated the two EMS fellows’ approaches were.
Although both were medical aid responderes, their respective job roles significantly affected their response to the same situation. This observation has stuck with me and I see it echoed in other places, including responding to online communications.
Jonathan D. Abolins´s last blog ..Getting back to the blog after a summer hiatus