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Parents are putting their kids safety at risk. Are you one of them?
This is a great post for parents. My wife came across a FB post from a friend of ours and saw a few concerns. She asked me for a comment as she wrote this from a mother’s perspective.
We’ve made some of the same mistakes in the past, so we know exactly the feeling parents have when things like this happen…be safe.
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Law Enforcement Interactions with Individuals with Mental Illness: Officer Safety Considerations
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Sex on the Social Media Police Beat
@PGPDNews
An announcement this week from the Prince George’s County Police sent some of the social media world into a bit of a tailspin. The PRPD plans on live tweeting a prostitution sting operation. In their release they say;
“The PGPD’s Vice Unit will conduct a prostitution sting that targets those soliciting prostitutes and we’ll tweet it out as it happens.”
I read the release and the quote above and I can clearly see that the target of the sting will be the johns and hopefully the dirt bags that live off the work of the prostitutes. Maybe they will get lucky and grab a lowlife that lives in the world of human trafficking. Yes ladies and gentlemen for those of you who didn’t know, human trafficking, forcible confinement, living off the avails of prostitution, sexual assault, drug trafficking are all crimes that result from prostitution. Very few police departments anymore have any interest in prosecuting the sex trade workers themselves. It’s the people who are behind the workers and those that enable the profession, the johns, pimps and others like them.
Well, some people went off the rails about the release thinking the PGPD was targeting the workers. Can they not read? “…targets those soliciting prostitutes.”
The Prince George’s PD had to issues a follow-up release clarifying their position after some of the storm over their position started;
“We’re hoping the advance notice we’ve provided acts as a deterrent to would-be johns who choose to engage in this illegal behavior.”
They added, “This is another example of our department’s commitment to transparency.”
I really like the idea of using social media for this purpose…to help identify those people who are on the dirty side of the sex trade. I think it’s great to be proactive in doing everything to prevent a crime before it can be committed.
This is the type of event that has the ability to grab hold of our voyeuristic curiosity about police work. To peel back some of the curtains to take a peek inside using social media to do it.
I think this is way better than a “Tweet-a-long” in terms of the sheer “COPS on TWITTER, unscripted, unedited prospect.”
But, having said that, I am glad that it will be edited for the safety of the prostitutes, the officers and anyone that is actually in the wrong place/wrong time and not those there for the purpose of paying a pro.
Strategy Learning Point
What is the PGPD strategy behind this program? I am sure that it is the protection of vulnerable people through prevention and identification of offenders. But, what kind of things might people think? Well, here is what a site in the UK sees it as, ”
“Police to live tweet prostitution sting to embarrass punters off streets”
Whoa….to embarrass punters (JOHNS) off the streets? Well…if that is the strategy involved then the PGPD will have a problem with the ACLU, any lawyer involved in due process and god forbid a family whose loved one killed himself for embarrassment of being outed on social media without process.
Campaign Strategy
Even though this event may only last a few hours on Twitter, think of it in terms of a campaign. Always think about and lay out your strategy when designing a campaign like this. Have all your T’s crossed and your I’s dotted so that there is no confusion as to what the exact nature of what you are doing is.
When you go public with your plans, have that information all out there so there is no public confusion and you leave very little room for negative interpretation.
Way to go!
Hat tip to the Prince George’s Police for recognizing the upset that was caused on social very quickly after they announced the program and for getting out there and making a clarification. Listening…the best risk management tool of all.
Good luck with the sting.
Follow along with the PGPD on Twitter @PGPDNews
I can’t wait to see it unfold. I’ve added #PGPDVice to my search screen, you should too!
This picture via Cambridgeshire Police
The real social media police policing the police
The following post is a direct copy from the Birmingham Post. Click the link if you want to see the original, but it’s the same.
I am looking for your thoughts on this (mainly from police, law enforcement, community managers, social media managers), but also welcome the comments from everyone because the perspective would be great as well.
Please don’t comment on the money itself though…everything has a cost.
West Midlands Police has handed over £45,000 to a firm to help it control the Twitter and Facebook accounts of its officers.
The cash has been handed to Birmingham-based CrowdControlHQ to provide security and oversight of all of the forces official Twitter and Facebook accounts.
The payments, revealed in a Freedom of Information request, have topped £45,900 since September 5, 2011.
It said all of the forces Facebook and Twitter accounts are plugged into CrowdControlHQ to ensure that social media assets are kept safe and secure. The accounts are then monitored by the press office to ensure that nothing posted “conflicts with the corporate message or style” of the force.
West Midlands Police faced a massive backlash earlier this year after it banned an award-winning officer from Tweeting – after he highlighted resource problems via the social media site.
Inspector Michael Brown had his account, @MentalHealthCop suspended in February.
But his Twitter feed, which has more than 20,000 followers, was reinstated within a week.
Police chiefs insisted that the account was only reactivated because the inspector accepted “informal advice” following an internal investigation.
It emerged during the controversy that officers have to sign an 11-page social media agreement and also have to provide login details.
CrowdControlHQ explains the work it has done with the force on its own website in helping to protect the force from spamming and malicious postings.
It says: “Each authorised officer can post or tweet by logging in to the system, but the central communications team retains the passwords for all social media accounts.
“By plugging all social media networks into the CrowdControlHQ dashboard, the central communications team now has visibility over the entire posting and engagement activity and is able to drill down on chosen accounts or content.
“By setting up keyword dictionaries, accounts are monitored constantly by the system and offen- sive or abusive content is either removed automatically or sent for review by key members of the team.
Speaking about the official Twitter accounts the force said: “These are used for officers to communicate directly with the people we serve, providing them with proactive news and information.
“Officers have always provided official account passwords in case any inappropriate material needs removing or if any technical issues.
“We do not and have never requested user names or passwords for personal social media accounts from our officers or staff.”
Social Media Safety Considerations
Protecting yourself in regards to safety issues starts with knowledge…best step is to know your platforms and issues that may creep up. This post from the International Association of Chiefs of Police gives some good tips in this regard. Take a read!
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A Challenge to Our Nation’s Police Leaders
I am a proponent to the 21 foot rule after having seen what an edged weapon attack looks like, but there is a great challenge here for policing leaders…which doesn’t necessarily mean the brass.
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Did #myNYPD really backfire?
@NYPDNEWS
Are the police perfect? NO
Have the police made mistakes? YES
Will mistakes continue to happen? They SURE WILL!
Was #myNYPD a mistake? ABSOLUTELY NOT. In fact I love it and I know many others love it as well. I applaud the NYPD for doing this. For reaching out and saying, “Send us a pic.” There is no doubt in my mind that the leadership that put together the idea and launched it across Twitter yesterday had to have known what has happened was a certain possibility. (If it wasn’t considered then perhaps they need some help.)
Did they expect 24 hours later it would have become a global hashtag? Probably not.
The NYPD has shown courage in doing this. They are smart and resourceful. They have done something very few agencies do. They actually reached out and wanted to hear from their communities and come hell or high water, they are taking it all in.
Looking at many of the images from the #myNYPD stream I can’t help but wonder how many of these pictures are from individuals in the pictures or have they just been Googled and posted for the controversial impact? Next thing of note…the number of anonymous people and people who look like Guy Fawkes. More credibility just oozing out of the opposition to the NYPD. Lets not forget how I feel about them.
Between some of the nasty pictures….perhaps now is also a good time to mention that a picture is a snapshot in time, there were a few really great community submitted photos. A photo shows neither context or situation. A person being carried by the police bleeding can be:
- Under arrest
- Being removed from a dangerous situation for their protection
- Being extricated from a violent crowd
- The victim of a beating not by police
- A police officer
Unless there is context there is no way of knowing. Even if it is a person under arrest and they are bleeding I still say, “I need to know more.” As should anyone with even one tenth of an active brain because no one knows from a picture what led to the bleeding.
If every picture that was posted were of beatings and bad activity, then the NYPD would be no more because human rights law suits and constitutional law suits would have been so many and so one-sided that there just would be no more NYPD at all.
This is by no means a fail for the NYPD. In fact, this can be a big win for them. They have something that few departments have. A baseline measurement for public satisfaction and sentiment (albeit, not scientific nor accurate). They can build on it and do it again next month, and the month after that and the month after that.
I applaud NYPD and laugh at the detractors. 
#myNYPD has also decided to move into the global realm. Funny enough, pictures have shown up on other #my____ sites from the New York site. Even more credibility. It looks kind of desperate doesn’t it?
I love what the commissioner of the NYPD said, “I kind of like the attention.” Bill Bratton went on to say, “Often times police activities are lawful, but look awful.” Once again, the snapshot in time. What is the whole story behind a pic. Was it at the end or the beginning of an event? What Commissioner Bratton said is a great statement that it seems very few police leaders are actually willing to say anymore. Policing is not always pretty. In fact it can get down right dirty when you’re fighting for your life. People don’t call 9-1-1 when life is great. It’s when bad things are happening and they need the good guys to come in and help.
Honesty, this isn’t even NYPD
Way to go NYPD…can’t wait to see it next month. And the month after and the month after. Don’t pull back, don’t hide. Come out stronger and more aggressive. The world needs to know what the good side of policing is like. I wish we could have talked beforehand, this could have gone better because we would have laid out all the possibilities, the options for doing this which would have been safer and more provider controlled and for sure, we would of had a lot of fun with it!
Here is #MyPD
Officer giving a helping hand
If you are a police agency thinking of doing this you will definitely want to avoid the key mistake that the @NYPDNews made with this campaign, they overlooked who actually controls the information on the Internet and social networks in today’s information economy.
Stop It! Please! Just! Stop!
More great reasons mentioned here on why cross populating platforms is just plain bad. Great post D!!
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Cross Populating Content
Here is the most recent post I put together for The International Association of Chiefs of Police blog, The Social Media Beat.
Yeah…there are donut pictures in here.
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