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28<br />

FUTURE TRENDS IN POLICING<br />

people planned to head downtown, and adjusted deployment plans accord<strong>in</strong>gly. The LAPD<br />

has fully <strong>in</strong>tegrated its social media branch <strong>in</strong>to the command post structure for major<br />

events, and the social media branch is responsible for brief<strong>in</strong>g the <strong>in</strong>cident commander<br />

about relevant activities on social media.<br />

LAPD officers don’t just monitor social media, however—they also send out messages of<br />

their own. Often, the messages are meant to encourage law-abid<strong>in</strong>g behavior and show<br />

good faith on the part of the department <strong>in</strong> manag<strong>in</strong>g major events peacefully. LAPD<br />

Deputy Chief Pat Gannon also noted that police messages can sometimes have a subtext<br />

of warn<strong>in</strong>g for potential lawbreakers. “In some cases, we want people to know how many<br />

officers we have deployed. We want to give out <strong>in</strong>formation that will give a potential<br />

offender pause if they are th<strong>in</strong>k<strong>in</strong>g about caus<strong>in</strong>g harm to an event or area,” Gannon said.<br />

The Albuquerque Police Department uses free programs, such as Tweet Deck, to stay <strong>in</strong><br />

touch with the community. A wide variety of Twitter analytics tools are available, many of<br />

which are free. 26 Us<strong>in</strong>g these real time search tools, departments can stay <strong>in</strong>formed about<br />

trend<strong>in</strong>g topics <strong>in</strong> their community. In Albuquerque, officers have been able to anticipate<br />

and respond to potential issues by monitor<strong>in</strong>g tweets conta<strong>in</strong><strong>in</strong>g certa<strong>in</strong> keywords. Chief<br />

Jeff Tate of Shakopee, M<strong>in</strong>nesota, described how his officers and their private security<br />

partners have monitored social media to <strong>in</strong>tercept rival gangs and, <strong>in</strong> one <strong>in</strong>stance, even<br />

prevented them from caus<strong>in</strong>g disruptions at a major amusement park.<br />

Law enforcement agencies must also consider how their own actions are reported to the<br />

public through social media. Nearly any public action of a police officer may be recorded on<br />

a mobile device and can be <strong>in</strong>stantly uploaded to a social media site. Many of today’s police<br />

chiefs have said that they generally advise their officers to always behave <strong>in</strong> public as if<br />

they are be<strong>in</strong>g recorded, because that very well may be the case.<br />

26. IACP’s Center for Social Media has useful resources on social media available at www.iacpsocialmedia.org/<br />

Technologies/Parent/Platform.aspx?termid=56&depth=3.<br />

Also, Twitter analytics tools are discussed at http://socialmediatoday.com/SMC/192464.

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