A Law Enforcement Today article recently covered the question: what do you do when a civilian starts recording you for a YouTube video? Regardless of whether your jurisdiction’s policy is to view videotaping as Constitutionally protected free speech, or a danger to officer safety, stated author Jean Reynolds: Criminal justice experts suggest the following guidelines…
Category Archives: Reputation management
Occupy policing, Part II: Setting — and conveying — the right tone
On LinkedIn last week, I posted an item to several of my groups about how the Philadelphia Police Department cleared the city’s Dilworth Square of Occupy protesters. I received a LinkedIn message asking me what it had to do with social media or the Internet, and rather than respond one-on-one, I thought it would be…
Occupy policing: Shaping community dialogue through leadership
A Washington Post headline this week caught my eye: “Police want to stay out of Occupy story.” As quoted in the article: “What keeps police chiefs up at night is that somehow the purpose of the movement will become about actions that the police have taken,” said Chuck Wexler, executive director of the Police Executive…
Political pressure? Refer to your values
It’s been said that social media “amplifies” whatever an organization’s values are. If a company is all about pushy sales, so will be its social efforts. If it seeks long-term customer loyalty based on relationships, its social efforts will reflect that too. Likewise among police departments. An agency that respects its citizens enough to communicate…
In a crisis, communicate short-term for long-term goodwill
An iPhone prototype lost, found, and then sold. A police raid on the home of the blogger who broke the story. In a public relations crisis that is largely eclipsed by the much bigger issues of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill and Wall Street fraud, the Silicon Valley-based Rapid Enforcement Allied Computer Team (REACT)…
An example of what I mean
I thought it might be useful to provide an example of what I am talking about when I say that law enforcement agencies can do more – a lot more – with social media than they currently are. First, Joe the Cop Joe’s latest blog post concerns the beatdown of a compliant motorist by a…