In the monthly column I write for Officer.com, I’ve referred to Toronto police Sgt. Tim Burrows several times. Back when I joined Twitter in late 2008, Tim was just one of the very few sworn police officers tweeting and blogging with a pioneering eye toward building a community, a virtual extension of the one he actually served. Eventually, his activity — rare among police active in social media, though thankfully less rare now — became the seed (and later, the foundation) for the way Toronto Police Service implemented social media throughout its service.
I’ve often wished for a way to work directly with Tim on some project, and why I’m so pleased that after months of on-and-off talk, we’ve found it: #copchat, a new Twitter chat we’ll be cohosting on Wednesday nights at 9 p.m. Eastern. Tim has posted more details on his Walking the Social Media Beat blog; one of the things I’m most excited about is the cross-section the chat represents between social media and technology use in general (including the digital forensics world I inhabit), and the chance to continue building a community that’s already pretty strong.
Join us next Wednesday night, 6/27 at 9 p.m. EDT. Use the #copchat hashtag through tools like TweetDeck, HootSuite or TweetChat. Everyone is welcome — and we look forward to learning as much from you as we hope you’ll learn from us!
Founder Christa M. Miller is a public relations and communication strategist who specializes in law enforcement and digital forensics.
I’m so excited about this and working with you on this! Its a great opportunity to connect police from all skill sets, experts such as yourself and the communities whice we are all striving to protect and make safer through education and openess.
Thanks Tim, I’m excited too, especially after seeing so much positive feedback from Twitter and Facebook! Here’s to next week!
Christa Miller´s last [type] ..Writing for the community
While, i obviously support #copchat cuz i love ya both – i hope it will not just be police officers talking to cops about Law Enforcement…the title above suggest that. Am i to assume this will be about honest discussion from all quarters and all walks of life via twitter?
Either way, you know i support you both, always.
Here’s a secret: I’ve always sucked at titling.
This was a really quick blog post I admittedly dashed off with minimal thinking about how the title would come across. So, to answer your question: OF COURSE anyone is welcome! You can’t have a conversation about community engagement without community involvement, after all. By all means join the fun!