While those of us who park on the street in Boston’s neighborhoods are rarely pumped to see a 5-O, the Boston Police Department has been warmly welcomed on social media. The BPD started using Twitter almost two years ago, and they are cited as the first law enforcement agency in America to start leveraging the platform (Boston is pretty good at being #1, afterall).
Last year, TheNextWeb even picked up the BPD’s twitter pulse, publishing a pretty hilarious interaction with a Bostonian about zombies. Funnies aside, Twitter is part of a larger effort by the agency to improve communication in more innovative ways through social media – and they are using everything from Facebook to text messaging. In fact, the BPD is also cited as the first law enforcement agency to blog, where they realize over 10,000 visits a day. And if you visit their Facebook and Twitter pages you will note they receive lots of positive feedback from the Boston community around their efforts.
BostInno had a chance to question the BPD’s Director of Communications, Elaine Driscoll, about their Twitter use in particular — a place where they have accumulated almost 18,000 followers, are listed almost 1,000 times, and not a day goes by where I see their handle being retweeted by the Boston community.
In terms of getting initial signoff to leverage Twitter, Driscoll had some concern about “too many points of entry” for Bostonians to get their public safety information. “I am since a Twitter convert.” she said, “I think it is one of the best methods of communication that we use.” She went on to offer that she 100% recommends the service to other agencies around the country.
According to Driscoll, information from BPD is sent out in two ways. Their 911 center staff send out real-time tweets as incidents occur, and they post crime stats and press releases directly from their blog’s RSS feed. As far as things BPD will not tweet, Driscoll relayed, “As you can imagine, there is certain information that is considered law enforcement sensitive. Victim privacy is a top priority when disseminating information as well as certain investigative details that could compromise an investigation.”
In terms of outcomes around leveraging Twitter, we asked Driscoll about any remarkable examples (as well as the funniest tweet they’ve ever received, which she declined to be able to answer given the serious nature of most of their tweets). Driscoll shared that they receive many tips over both Twitter and Facebook, offering the example of when community members indicate areas they believe are experiencing drug dealing they then forward that information to the district drug unit to look into. “We try to always respond to tweets,” she said. “We do, however, consistently remind the community that Twitter should never replace a call to 911. That is not Twitter’s intended purpose.”
We asked Driscoll what the BPD has found most valuable in using Twitter, and as you might guess, it centers fundamentally on community.
“I think the most valuable thing that we experience is an increase in community confidence in our organization. Community members feel empowered when they feel informed. An informed community is more likely to report crime and cooperate with their local officers. It reinforces our department’s commitment to being “open and transparent” which is what the community wants from their local police department.”
And while BPD doesn’t have any new initiatives or specific plans going forward on Twitter, Driscoll said they are always seeking to improve their communications and love hearing from community members. Since they currently manage the handle using Twitter.com, we think our friends at oneforty (app store for Twitter also located here in Boston) might want to reach out and provide them a great suggestion!
We recommend you visit the Boston Police’s blog, Facebook and Twitter accounts to stay informed, and make sure you congratulate them on making Boston 1st and pushing the envelope with Gov2.0!
