Defrosting Cold Cases

There is an interesting report out on law enforcement and their use of Twitter by CAPSM (the Canadian Association of Police on Social Media). The report, a survey of 1,089 police and police-related Twitter accounts, used 25 different criteria to show how agencies and officers are using Twitter, where they can improve, and implications for their future use. The group looked at law enforcement Twitter accounts in Canada, the United States of America, and the United Kingdom.

Some interesting results:

“Police in none of the three countries have a “better handle” on Twitter use than in others. Instead, each group of police has its own strengths and focuses, some of which may be cultural or political while others may reflect better command of social media and how it can serve the community.

For example, British police have the fewest followers on average, but have the highest proportion of “talkative” as well as “active” Twitter accounts. They also have the highest proportion of RSS use, indicating a degree of automation which may not be of as much use to followers as more personalized tweets.

On the other hand, Canadian police, even with the fewest accounts of the three, have the highest average number of both followers and followees, and a higher proportion of “talkative” accounts. Meanwhile the United States, with the most accounts and most tweets, have the fewest average followees as well as more “sparse” accounts.

Categories: Miscellaneous

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