Informant Vol 10 No 2 - 2013 Spring - National White Collar Crime ...

geted because the Department thought residents, studentsand businesses would be most interested. “Then we lookedfor an officer who liked the idea and was happily willing toshare his patrol experience with everyone,” Waugh said.“And we were quite lucky that Master Police Officer AlJoyner volunteered for the assignment.”The key to pulling off a successful tweet-a-thon or“tweet-the-beat” event, Stevens said, comes down to goalsetting:What doesyour agency wantto accomplish? Takethe time to informfollowers about theevent and how theycan follow along andengage participatingofficers, she added.“As far as content,Twitter doesn’tchange anything.They should sharewhat’s appropriateand in accordancewith their departmentpolicy. Havingsaid that, it’s importantto be ‘real’ andnot to come acrossas the stereotypical stiff cop. Don’t be afraid to use humorand show a little personality. Also, enrich the tweets withphotos or video when possible as well.”Throughout the RPD tweet-a-thon, Waugh posted severalpictures of Joyner at work. At the conclusion of theDepartment’s participation in the event, she also posteda video message from the officer. Other agencies postedphotos and public service announcements, used Foursquare®to check into various locations while out on patrol,and linked to outside content or re-tweeted other colleagues’messages.“When it comes to handling public interactions, agenciesshould be prepared for positive and negative ones andjust plan in advance for how you want to respond,” Waughnoted. “The more prepared you are, the better you are ableto respond when you get questioned or criticized.”Overall, Waugh thought RPD’s participation in theTweet-a-thon benefited both the Department, “which getsto communicate and share information, and the community,which gets an ‘inside-look’ at policing that they normallydon’t see and they can ask questions and interact.”Future ‘Tweet-a-thons’Stevens would like to see certain states or regions organizesimilar events on their own in the future. “I think Texas, Massachusetts,Ontario (Canada), the entire United Kingdom orCalifornia had enough participants in the Global Tweet-athonthat they would be obvious candidates to organize similarevents,” she said.RPD received one tweeted suggestion that merits furtherconsideration,Waugh said. A followerproposed theconcept of tweetingfrom the city’s Divisionof EmergencyCommunicationsCenter (911 Center).The concept ofa tweet-a-thon ortweet-along is startingto take rootthroughout the U.S.at agencies big andsmall.In a case studyGoogle® Maps provides locations for “Tweet-a-thon” participants. Most were locatedin the U.S. and Great Britain.International Asso-published on theciation of Chiefs ofPolice (IACP) Center for Social Media website (www.iacpsocialmedia.org),the Arlington (TX) Police Department(APD) reports using tweet-alongs to build a robust onlinefollowing and reach out to its residents in a meaningful way.“Instead of highlighting a single officer during a shift, thePIO team touches on the work of many officers, highlightingdifferent types of calls and experiences,” APD staff wrote inthe IACP case study report.Further success with tweet-alongs has led APD to proposeteaming up with other agencies throughout the countryto conduct joint operations in the future. “APD now has conductedjoint tweet-alongs with the Fort Worth (TX) PoliceDepartment and has future plans with the Richmond (VA),Tampa (FL) and Las Vegas (NV) Departments,” the reportstated.“These events bring immense value to both RPD and thecommunity because they encourage communication andpromote information-sharing,” Waugh said. “We want peopleto know what we do, what an average day is like for anofficer and who these great officers are that the communityhas working for them.” WWW.NW3C.ORG 9