In a time when many companies are drafting carefully thought out social media policies to try and find a balance between employee censorship and freedom of speech, several departments in the UK police force are actually encouraging police officers to use Twitter and Facebook during shifts. Rather than treating is as a time-waster and drain on company resources, not to mention an open door for bad publicity, social media is being embraced as a modern day crime fighting tool.

In an interview with the BBC, the web officer for the New Yorkshire Police Department, Tom Stirling, says that social media allow officers to communicate directly with the public. Facebook pages, for instance, allow people to relate their experience of police services – good and bad – so that departments know what they need to change or do more of.

The West Midlands Police Department is one of the more on the ball social media users. They recognised that people were posting videos of their services on YouTube, not all of which were complimentary, and so it was decided that they would give the public a police perspective by uploading their own videos and getting involved in the various discussions that were taking place.

You know things are changing when the UK’s National Police Improvement Agency has a social media advisor – Nick Keane says that unless police departments engage their critics who are active on social media they risk being undermined as public protectors. One of the dangers of social media, especially videos is that events can be easily misunderstood or taken out of context, which is why the West Midlands police have started using Twitter and YouTube proactively.

By sending tweets out before demonstrations (using the appropriate hashtag, I might add), they are able to outline acceptable behaviour and by uploading videos of their handling of demonstrations they are able to circumvent a lot of negative impressions. This approach was used to good effect by the Metropolitan Police during the G20 Summit at the beginning of the year, when they monitored Twitter and Facebook to find out what various demonstration groups were planning and taking appropriate steps to ensure the safety of everyone concerned. Metro Police Commander, Simon O’Brien said that tapping into social networks is a “key area of intelligence gathering”.

Also at the beginning of the year, New Zealand police used Facebook to catch a burglar. It must be said that the burglar in question was a bit of a dunce, removing his balaclava and exposing his face to a hidden camera, but by uploading the footage to the police department’s Facebook page police were able to make an arrest within 24 hours. Just FYI, as a result of the successful arrest, the police force managed to double their ‘friends’.

It doesn’t matter where in the world you live, police services are traditionally the least expected to be on the cutting edge of technology (episodes of CSI notwithstanding). Which makes one wonder, if they can recognise the importance of listening to the public and adapting their approach to services be of greater benefit to citizens, why can’t multinational corporations get it right?

To show exactly how well some members of the UK police services understand social media, let’s turn to West Midlands Inspector Mark Payne: “We want to talk to people and allow people to talk to influence the way we police … This is not about abandoning the traditional ways. More and more people are using social media to communicate and, if that’s where people are talking, that’s where we need to go.”

Amen.

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