Mental illness is a hot topic in the news right now, thanks largely to mass killings, domestic violence and violence that doesn’t fit either of those narratives. While the stories help to highlight the overall topic — that mental illness is prevalent among our neighbors, coworkers and the strangers we pass each day — they…
Tag Archive: Law Enforcement
Now tweeting: #copchat, the new resource for law enforcement
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…
Blue Light Camp: In the UK, Spotlight on social media after 2011 riots
Nearly a year ago, as I caught up on tweets following my talk at the Police Leadership Conference, a series of tweets caught my eye. They came from Sasha Taylor, Chair of the National Police Web Managers Group. Sasha and I got into a good discussion about social media use in law enforcement, and although…
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…
An exercise in social
Monday last week was something of a first for me. Instead of writing about public relations and social media, I talked about it – to a roomful of about 160 public information officers, media relations officers, command staff and others involved with police information dissemination. The venue: the 2-day Advanced Strategic Communications Seminar, “Social Media…
Workers vs. widgets: policing in the age of high tech
Last month, Federal News Radio reported that budget cuts to the Defense Department meant choosing between high-tech firepower, and the troops who would become “irrelevant” during a war that implemented it. Could high tech make police irrelevant? The Memphis Daily News’ article about information and intelligence sharing among Tennessee law enforcement officers shows the ways…