Powerpoint from presentation to Global MSC Seminar, Royal Marriott, Bristol 6 March 2012.

1. Social media and social unrest: Challenges
and Opportunities for UK Police Forces
Dr Paul Reilly
University of Leicester
6 March 2012
@PaulJReilly
www.le.ac.uk 1

2. Overview
• Social media challenges for UK Police during civil
unrest: Belfast and Bristol
• Lessons from the English riots (Aug 2011)
• Police use of social media to engage with local
communities

3. Social media, protest and ‘recreational rioting’
in Belfast:
• Social media used to coordinate interface violence (Whitewell Youth
Mediation Project, 2008; Centre for Young Men’s Studies, 2009)
• Media framing of incidents – ‘technopanic’? Social media to blame?
• NI adults cautious about new media (OfCom 2010 Adult Literacy Audit)
• Adolescent practices consistent with rest of the UK (Lloyd & Devine, 2008;
Livingstone and Brake, 2010)
• Small pilot study of community workers and Police Service of Northern
Ireland (PSNI) examines responses to the use of social media to organise
street riots

4. Reilly (2011): Social media not to blame for
street riots
• PSNI claimed they did not routinely monitor social media for intelligence
about street riots (community workers believed they did though..)
• Key stakeholders perceive that the multistakeholder approach towards
Internet Safety is an effective and proportionate response to the ‘anti-
social’ networking practices of young people.
• They believed that anti-social behaviour could be organised via SMS text
messaging if sites as Bebo were no longer available.

5. Sousveillance and social media:
• From French word sous (below) and veiller (to watch) –
‘inverse surveillance’
• Concept developed by Mann to explore potential use of
wearable computing to empower users (1997, 2001)
• Two forms: personal (first person perspectives on life) and
hierarchical (recording authority figures and actions)
• Web 2.0 social practices (e.g. use of smart phones to access
social media) generate “intensification of sousveillance’
(Bakir, 2010)

6. Disagreement over police actions on
21st April:
” Yesterday there was a very real threat to the local community from the petrol bombs
that were being made and we needed to take positive action [….] The fact that we
seized petrol bombs illustrates the seriousness of this situation and the reason why we
took this positive action”
Assistant Chief Constable Rod Hansen, Avon and
Somerset Constabulary, 22nd April 2011.
The police tactics were unfathomable. They seemed to consist of running from one end of
Stokes Croft to the other (and up several side streets), randomly charging about the
place, getting more and more people involved and moving the violence into new areas
that had previously been quiet.”
Battle of Stokes Croft: eye witness/local resident report,
Bristol Indymedia, 22nd April 2011
6

7. Videos of events posted on Youtube:
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zpPM2NXLK-c
7

8. Research Questions:
• What themes emerge from the videos uploaded to Youtube by
those who witnessed the Stokes Croft riots? Does it correspond to
hierarchical or personal sousveillance?
• How do audiences (commenters) respond to these videos? What
themes characterise these responses?
• N= 52 videos, 1018 comments (from four most commented upon
videos)
• Critical thematic analysis of videos – repetition, recurrence and
forcefulness (Orbe & Kinefuchi, 2008; van Zoonen et al, 2010;
Grace Antony & Thomas, 2010)

9. Preliminary findings:
• Both personal and hierarchical sousveillance evident in the
videos posted on Youtube e.g. Film Everything!
• Study suggests that these videos could be considered records
of citizen journalism informed by sousveillance techniques
• Comments left by Youtubers show sympathy for the police
and criticism of rioters
• Youtube is also a space for some users to negotiate the
meaning of these events – for police narratives to be both
supported and challenged

10. Social media and English riots (6-10 August 2011)
• http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?
msid=205032186327800375055.0004a9e051b74ddbfcadd&m
sa=0 10

11. Some UK politicians blame social media for
riots (11 August):
“Free flow of information can be used for good. But it can also be used for ill.
And when people are using social media for violence we need to stop
them. So we are working with the Police, the intelligence services and
industry to look at whether it would be right to stop people
communicating via these websites and services when we know they are
plotting violence, disorder and criminality”
Prime Minister David Cameron

12. Social media used ‘for good and bad’ during
August riots:
• BBM broadcasts used to organise riots in London, Birmingham,
Manchester – ‘chitter-chatter’
• Rumours and unsubstantiated information spread via Twitter (e.g.
Reading the Riots)
• People made aware via social and traditional media (esp television) that
police had lost control of streets
• Social media provides real-time information about riots to local residents
who board up shop windows and leave affected areas
• Twitter used to organise clean up operations (#riotcleanup)

13. How did UK Police use social media during
the August riots?
• Provide real-time information to residents
• Quell rumours and misinformation about riots
• Appeal for help in prosecuting rioters (‘Name and Shame’)
• Riots led to an intensification of police engagement with
social media e.g. 813 UK officers on Twitter (1 March 2012)

14. ACPO ‘Engage’ strategy details how social
media could support neighbourhood policing
(2010)
• Source of intelligence for policing e.g. riots, protests
• Provide real-time information about safety issues
e.g. road traffic accidents
• Help CEOP and related agencies involved in
promoting Internet Safety
• Share knowledge and best practice

15. Innovative Police uses of new
media include:

16. Crump (2011) Twitter used ‘cautiously’ by
UK Police Forces
• Twitter most successfully used in real-time operational
situations or in marketing campaign
• Use has been largely non-transformational – reputational risk
remains a concern
• Extra channel for delivering messages, not means of enabling
dialogue with public
• Greatest strength is publicising issues and conversations
taking place elsewhere

17. Conclusion
• Difficult to control social media during civil unrest but
important for police to respond quickly to misinformation and
rumours
• August riots demonstrated examples of good practice in
terms of how police use social media for broadcasting
• Tension between openness of sites such as Twitter and the
need to preserve reputation of UK Police forces
• Social media can support but not replace traditional modes of
police engagement with the public