I recently blogged about “expert branding” and how it could help a police department’s overall mission by drawing on officers’ experience and taking some of the informational weight off the PIO’s shoulders. Around the time I was writing the post, I noticed Lt. Kristen Ziman (@Lt_KZ on Twitter) was tweeting some pretty funny stuff. I…
Tag Archive: Law
Can social media help guard against vigilantism?
This week, the Stockton (Calif.) city council approved a budget that will lay off 55 police officers. If you recall, Stockton was the city where—when the likelihood of a significant number of layoffs was announced in April—an armed militia announced plans to “activate” should this actually occur. City officials, as Stockton resident and activist Bill…
Personal, or professional… or both?
I work with a client, a 25-year veteran of law enforcement, who is really gung-ho about social media… except for the personal part. “I don’t want to get personal,” he tells me. “I’m a cop. We don’t get personal.” Trust me, I get that. I can’t understand it the way career cops do, but I’ve…
Train for the cameras
American Police Beat’s recent blog about police pursuits (authored by Sgt. Timothy Long) caught my eye because of this passage: For the viewer, a police pursuit is a real-time drama with an unknown outcome…. But what if you are the one engaged in the pursuit? You and your decision-making capabilities are playing out for the…
Big Brother vs. public safety
In 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 Officer, Stephen Nolen): most followers deem it too “Big Brother.” Point well made. Especially in light of this article from the U.K. Overwhelmingly positive in…
The new agency blog: What to say?
Starting an official department blog can be intimidating, especially for those who don’t think of themselves as “writers.” As I wrote earlier, you should consider it another form of communication – talking to the public. But what do you actually write about? Some blogs, like the LAPD’s, take the concept of newspapers’ “Police Blotter” a…