Social Media as means of communication for law enforcement agencies
1. Social Media as means of
communication for law
enforcement agencies
Major Cities of Europe - Workshop "Social Media and Apps", 21st of March 12
2. Speaker
Adj Michael Wirz
Deputy Chief Information Officer
Zurich City Police
Student of Business Communications
University of Applied Sciences in Business Administration Zurich
3. Zurich and its police
Cultural and economic 2,093 employees (1,600 sworn)
center of Switzerland 60,000 emergency calls per year
380,000 inhabitants Up to 300 missions per day
4. Situation November 2011
Social Media: Society and media are changing. This
has a major impact on Public Relations.
20% of the citizens of Zurich use Social Media
regularly. The police did not.
Social Media are a big issue for most Swiss police
corps, but none of them had a Social Media strategy
yet.
5. "Wake-up call" in summer 2008
A 17-years old invited people to a "Botellón", an organized binge, via
Facebook
Public authorities did not know about it until conventional media covered
the story.
The "Botellón" caused costs of more than 150‘000 €
6. Fact is
The question is not whether, but how to integrate Social
Media in police work, as Social Media have already
become a mass phenomenon and a public area of life
for many citizens – including our own employees.
7. Strategy?
Social Media are trendy, cool, free to use and very
easy, however it is very important to use them
strategically and not just to use it for the sake of it.
8. Purpose of the strategy
Developing a Social Media strategy and policy for the
Zurich City Police that …
… meets not only the needs of the corps, but also the
interests of the online community.
… complies with a strict legal framework.
… takes existing concepts into account.
10. Why are the interests of the community
important?
Unlike conventional mass media (e.g. TV), the online
community only absorbs INTERESTING and
RELEVANT content.
11. Should the police use Social Media as a
communication/information tool?
I don‘t know
Absolutely 5%
not
3%
Rather no
12%
Yes,
absolutely
41%
Rather yes
39%
12. Survey: key findings
Different channels – different stakeholders
(demographic)
Currently, only Facebook, Twitter and blogs/forums
reach more than 15% of the community
Clear consent of the community
Facebook ist the most used channel
Twitter is the most desired platform to communicate
with the police
Conventional communication channels (e.g. e-mail)
are still very important
13. Objectives of Social Media
Any Social Media activity must pursue at least one of
the following goals:
1. Warning/information
2. Improve relationships with stakeholders (CP)
3. Prevention (crime / accidents)
4. Public search for missing / witnesses / delinquents
5. Improve the image of the force
6. Recruitment
14. Organization/Procedures
Social Media center of excellence (affiliated to the
communications department)
Explicit permission to staff to use Social Media (e.g.
human resources)
All activities must be approved and coordinated by
the center of excellence
Continuous training and guidance
Binding guidelines (for duty AND off-duty use)
15. Its all about trust!
There are issues (copyright, using images of people
with permission, deleting offensive posts etc.) that staff
need to know about. Beyond that we should trust them
to engage with the public online, as we already do
offline.
“We trust them with guns, fast cars and physical
restraints… but not computers?”
(Justin Partridge, Lincolnshire Police)
16. Conclusion
There are many risks and hazards lurking in the internet
to be considered.
However, if the police succeed in establishing authentic,
credible ambassadors to the new world, opportunities
will emerge – not just for the Public Relations
departments, but also for operational policing at the
front.
17. Further reading
http://www.iacpsocialmedia.org/
Center for Social Media of the IACP
http://www.ConnectedCOPS.net
Blogs, information, studies
http://cops2point0.com
Usefull information
Background:
Gillin, P. (2009). The New Influencers. South Mary, California: Quill Driver Books.
Figures:
Burson-Marsteller. (2011). The Global Social Media Check-up
