The Munhall (Pennsylvania) News Watch posted this Pittsburgh Tribune Review article recently: While police departments elsewhere turn to Web sites such as Twitter and Facebook, some local chiefs are sticking to automated phone messages as the best way to get fast alerts to many people at once. “If you want something right away, a Web…
Monthly Archives: June 2009
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…
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…
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…