When Mike Vallez launched his social media blog a few weeks ago, I was struck by a comment he made in one of his first posts: “I would venture to guess that in the future you will have a social media police officer or many social media police officers that will be involved in “the…
Tag Archive: Police officer
Transparency vs. anonymity
An interesting debate has cropped up over on ConnectedCops.net about whether police officers should be allowed to blog anonymously. It started with Lauri’s point in her post on elements of a social media policy (cross posted here and on her blog): 3. Identity. Some bloggers work anonymously, using pseudonyms or false screen names. Law enforcement…
Why aren’t more cops implementing social media?
Writing a blog entry, I began to speculate about why cops aren’t as involved with social media as, well, I think they should be. Was it the technology? The personal interaction? The anonymity? Or simply that they don’t yet understand it well enough? I didn’t have the experience to say authoritatively. So I opened it…
Media training via social media?
This analysis from Crisisblogger Gerald Baron, on an interview Cambridge PD Sgt. James Crowley did with the media, makes me wonder: can social media help train officers to deal with traditional media? Cops are taught, by and large, to steer clear of the media. The PIO or a commanding officer handles them at critical incidents,…
Blending professional and personal in Aurora (Illinois)
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…
The (not so) secret life of Officer Mitty
This week’s news out of the U.K. is disturbing on a number of different levels, but this op ed from the Guardian says it best: We hope that Detective Constable Richard Horton won’t lose his job, although he has been through what may be one of the fastest disciplinary processes in police history and been…