Today will be my third day in Toronto at the Police Executive Workshop. I have learned a few things around social media, policing and the community that might be interesting to you.
Social media is not new to policing. But what I have discovered is that police departments are at different places in their implementation of social media. Some are just starting, while others have advanced further on.
Police have definite concerns around how they will use social media. When I talked about Facebook Privacy, I could see that this was a hot topic. But the police are not the only ones who are concerned about privacy. Many businesses are still trying to figure how they can make social media happen without causing privacy concerns for their employees. Privacy should be a concern for everyone on social media.
The police will adopt social media as a tool to reach out and help the community as they feel more comfortable using it. Since social media is a powerful tool to engage and connect with the community, it is only a matter of time before more and more police services embrace it.
It is around the community and policing that I was most impresses with social media. Since labour shortages are looming in the years ahead and crime does not seem to be taking a holiday, police departments will need the assistance of the community to be effective. How will this happen? It will happen around conversations.
Social media is great at starting conversations. As I talked with victims of crime on Tuesday, the “Trust” word continued to surface again and again. I am hoping that conversations will produce trust and partnerships will be forged. The end result I hope will be a safer community to live in.
So to sum it up, I see good things happening for communities and the police. The police are making a good effort to learn how to connect and engage using social media. I see community members reaching back to the police. Together, in partnership, they can make communities safer for the people who live there.
I don’t see policing as the savoir for the community. I don’t see the community solving all the problems by themselves. But I do see conversations happening; and partnerships working to produce a community we can be proud of. No one wants to live in a community where their children can be gunned down at any moment . Social media can play a small part in the process of making our communities safer.
My hat is off to the police for wanting to take part in the conversations that need to happen; and to the community members that will partner together to make our communities safer.
By the way did you see the video of Rick Mercer with the new Blackberry Helmet? Watch the video; it’s a hoot. I showed this video in the workshop and they loved it. There has to be some Caper in Rick, because he is way too funny.
