Back to school advice for police

Posted on September 3, 2014 by Tim Burrows

Welcome back to the school year kids!!

Photo Credit: Granada Theatre, Dallas

Photo Credit: Granada Theatre, Dallas

I think now every child in North America is back in school now, sucking in all the knowledge that they can find in hopes of one day supporting parents who have toiled so much to get them where they are going in life.

This has been a great time for police to take to social media and give away every bit of their own knowledge as well to students, parents, drivers, pedestrians, cyclists, etc, etc, etc.

The content that can be created and shared right now is like a bottomless pit of information. Road safety, personal safety, property protection, crime prevention. The list goes on and on.

Law enforcement across the continent have been warning drivers to be careful and asking parents to talk about safety with their kids on that one very special day…the first day of school!

Back to school campaigns using social media should be a content explosion for your community that easily adds value to their lives. You can give, give, give, provide value, value, value for weeks, but….

Back To School is NOT a one day event!

Parents, think about what back to school has meant for you.

  • School supply shopping (Did anyone else do Walmart on their super sale days…oh the horror of it all).
  • Clothes shopping
  • Registration
  • Medical Exams
  • School visits
  • Transportation
  • Lunch prep

The whole process lasts a couple of weeks, but for some reason, so many police and law enforcement agencies used back to school to blow everything they had in one day…the actual day that kids were returning.  The next day…crickets on back to school safety.

Sure you might be running a week-long enforcement campaign, but what a bout a week-long messaging campaign.  And why wait until the day before or the day of to talk about back to school safety or to start enforcement.

Your campaign is not a one day event

Whether it’s back to school or Halloween Safety, Christmas Shopping Safety Tips or New Year’s eve safety, you have an opportunity to get people ready before hand. You can give information away like crazy well in advance.

Why stand in a school zone the day school starts and maybe a few days after?  Why not stand there everyday for the week before school. Get drivers conditioned to seeing you enforcing the speed limits.

Talk to parents about walking their kids to school or to the bus stop days before they have to do it the first time and remind them of all the important rules of the road.

Make videos at the end of the school year about personal safety and how to protect their property so that you can use it at the end of summer.

Review cyber safety with your community and provide resources so that parents and kids alike can have them in their minds or print them off just in case they need them later.

Give parents all the tools they can handle with street-safeing their kids. Offer tips on how to deal with bullying, being approached by people they don’t know, drug recognition, victimization prevention. All of this can be happening in the lead up to back to school.

No budget?

Here is one I was told, “We don’t have any money to create campaigns.”

Then curate your campaign. No one said the information has to be yours! You just need to provide the information and give the credit back to the creators.

The Internet is full of information. Facts, figures, research, data…it’s all there. Use it, share it, talk about it, source it back. I’m sure a neighbouring law enforcement agency does have the budget. Share their information.

For some agencies, back to school has been a one day event. In some cases, it’s been a one tweet or Facebook post event.

Back to school is a golden opportunity to create content, share content and give your community so much value over an extended period of time before, during and after the big day. It wasn’t a one day event to get ready for so don’t make it a one day event to message about.

If you’re an agency that talked about back to school before during and after the big day, well done.

Give, give, give…share, share, share.

 

 

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Avoid becoming the next “Celebrity Nude Photos” victim

Posted on September 2, 2014 by Tim Burrows

Screen Shot 2014-09-02 at 8.17.15 AMTo most of us, the headline of celebrity nude photos is at the very least, intriguing. Some  us may go link clicking to ‘see’ what all the buzz is about.  Other’s won’t give the idea of seeing their favorite Hollywood star nude a second thought. Who knows, someone out there might even be feeling for the celebrity whose private parts aren’t so private anymore.

Think about how you would feel if it were your private parts that were now public? What if it was your name in your local news feed,

“Local business woman available on the Internet for all to see.”

Some hackers take nothing more than personal pride to be able to get into someone else’s accounts. They get a rush breaking through the complexities of people’s most secure information…their password.

1234, Password, Birthdate, Anniversary Date…these are just some of the most popular passwords ever created. Not much for a hacker to really bust through, but an accomplishment just the same. Here is a list of the most popular passwords used.

Don’t think to yourself;

“Well I’ve never had a naked photo of me taken!!”

Congratulations and good for you, but what about your banking data? Your tax returns? Your investments? The contact information for your friends? Ever consider how much data you are actually just a few keystrokes away from giving up?

What about something simple like your social media accounts being taken over?

So, how do you keep you information secure against people who mean to do you harm or those just looking to add you to their accomplishment list?

Set a STRONG Password

Passwords that are easy to remember are easy to steal. Here are 4 tips to making great passwords.

  1. Use number and letters
  2. Make your password at least 8 characters
  3. Use special characters
  4. Make your password unique having nothing to do with ‘you’

Can’t come up with something on your own? Try a tool to help you out. Password Creator is very simple and has lots of flexibility.

PasswordCreator.com

PasswordCreator.com

Password Safety

Creating a strong password is one thing. Protecting your password and your identity is another.

  1. Never share your password.
  2. Use 2 Factor Authentication on everywhere it is available.
  3. Don’t use the same password everywhere.
  4. Create different passwords for different places.

I love 2 factor authentication. Two things have to be in place. Your password (something you know) and a device (something you have). Here is an excellent article on 2FA. Creating unique passwords can be a pain, but it is a very good way to keep insulated levels of security for yourself.

Device Safety

Getting into your device should never be a simple thing. Your device’s need protection too. Make sure you exercise any password settings available for your device.

Turn it up a notch with an access key to some of your devices. Many of you may have them for work but did you know you can get them for your own stuff as well?

Here is an example of a key fob you can use for when you step away from your computer.

lastpass.com

I love LastPass for helping to secure accounts. Think of it as a vault for all your passwords. All you need to remember how to do is open your vault while it takes care of the rest.

Don’t let yourself become the next Hollywood Starlit that is the victim of an online security attack. Protect yourself.

While nothing here will guarantee you won’t be hacked, you will be making it a lot harder for people to turn you into a victim. Remember, remove the opportunity; remove the crime.

Disclaimer: I don’t have an agreement with any of the products or services listed in this post, nor did I receive anything for mentioning them.

Final note: If you are searching the web for naked pictures of people who have been hacked to see what all the buzz is about, think for a minute…would you like it if people were doing that to your loved one? Every time someone views the pictures or shares them, the victims are being victimized again. Don’t be that person.

 

 

 

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#CopChat August 27 – Topic

Posted on August 27, 2014 by Tim Burrows

Wednesday August 27, 2014

It's baaaaaaaack

Tonight’s Topic

“Following your local police – agency and officers”

Tonight we are going to take a look at your local police and it’s officers that are using social media. Questions will center around their use of platforms and how they impact you.

Officers tuning in will benefit from the perspective of how they are viewed by their community and agencies can learn what their community wants from them?

For the community, what a great opportunity to hear from officers and agencies on how and why they do things.

It’s always about learning from each other.

If you don’t know who your local officers are or an agency from your town, google/bing/yahoo them to see if they have a presence.

What are the #CopChat “rules”? LOL, there are no rules but we want this to be a good experience for everyone so here are some ideas to help.

1. The first rule of #CopChat is we talk about #CopChat. This isn’t FightClub, we have nothing to hide.

2. If you have a blog, website or social channel that you want to share, please do so at the beginning…but we’ll ask that you don’t do any selling of products or services.  This chat is for discussion not sales. If you would like to sponsor a chat or promote your product, email me. ( timburrows1266@gmail.com )

3. There is no insulting, bullying or swearing.  If someone says something that you don’t agree with, respectfully say so and have a discussion.  That is what this is all about…learning and sharing.

4. If a subject presents itself that you may have written a piece for feel free to share at the end of the chat using the hashtag. Depending on the speed of the chat it could get lost in the stream during the middle of it and you’re less likely to get clicks during the chat.

5. If someone tweets something that you feel compelled to RT, do it! But, make it even better by adding your own flavour to it, or conversely, if you disagree, say so and provide the reason why.

6. If someone disagrees with your position take the criticism professionally…no twitter fights.  It won’t serve anyone with any value.  Take it out of the chat and have your fight without the hashtag.  No one wants to see children fight…we want to see adults chat.

7. Finally…no tweet longer apps.  Keep it under 140, no one wants to be clicking links to see the rest of your tweet. It will take people out of the conversation and probably get ignored anyways.

8. Abuse – if you choose to abuse the forum you will be blocked / muted and really what will that accomplish. We are all here to learn from each other. If you don’t like the police then say so respectfully…who knows, you might have a valid point but if it’s expressed poorly, no one will ever learn from it.

How to follow along.

Naturally, the easiest way is by using the hashtag… #CopChat

Using a dashboard platform like You will want to use TweetDeck / Hootsuite / TweetChat / Twubs etc, to follow the #CopChat.  You may also want create streams to follow @t_burrows and who ever may be co-hosting. Make sure you watch your own mentions stream so you don’t miss anything someone says to you.

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Why you need to follow the police on social media

Posted on August 27, 2014 by Tim Burrows

Need? Do you really need to follow the police on social media? Very simply put, yes you do. You need to follow your local city police, county police and state police.

Some of you may be thinking that, “Tim, I already abide by the laws, I’m a good citizen, why do I need to follow the police? ” Well that’s a great question and the best answer I have is because you are exactly who they need to follow them. That’s right, the police need you to follow them.

Your name is John or Jane. You’re married in your mid thirties. You have 2 children, commute everyday to work in an office, enjoy dinner with your family playing with your kids after eating and on the weekends you do your shopping, get your kids to their activities, catch up with friends and don’t give a second thought to your personal safety.

You are the perfect follower for the police. You see, you make up the vast majority of the tax base of any given community. You rarely require the services of your police and chances are the only contact you have had with them is though a traffic stop or because of that ‘stupid thing you did as a teenager’.

The police need you because you are their secret weapon. You want to know that when you are at work your home is protected. You want to know that you will be safe travelling to and from your office and that while you are there you won’t become the victim of a crime. You want to know that there won’t be any bad people trying to talk to our children in real life or online.

You want to know that the police are there for you, but you never want to need them. Your police department also wants life to be exactly like that. But because of life isn’t just that “Mayberry” you need to follow your police on social media.

The police are holders of vast information and they want to share that information with you because they know something else about you. You will share that information with your friends and family because it will make them safer and protect them from the same things that you are protected from.

The police will share crime prevention information. Things that most of us take for granted like why the bushes in front of our windows should be the kinds with thorns on them or what that little mirror on the bank machine is actually for.

Some police officers will try to inspire young children with creativity and showing them there is more to life than they sometimes see or take them on a camping trip to get them out of the concrete walls that are sometimes their only existence.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UizPRweRc2o

 

http://www.facebook.com/TPSTroop

http://www.facebook.com/TPSTroop

They will let you know about crashes and traffic disruptions to ease your commute and the local weather so you know how to dress for the day. The police will warn you about the bad guys and girls that could cause you harm and the ways they will do it, like when you aren’t paying attention on the subway and you find yourself the victim of a smart phone theft.

A great police department on social media will tell you that there are three things needed for a crime to occur:

  • A victim
  • An opportunity
  • A criminal

They will show you how to insulate yourself from becoming a victim and how to remove yourself from the opportunity equation and how to avoid the criminal.

When active crime is happening, you know you can turn to your police for the facts and the information that is credible because they don’t work in speculation or innuendo. Your police aren’t on a timeline for keeping viewers on their channel so they don’t start massive fishing expeditions for the next great rumour.

@BostonPolice #Captured

@BostonPolice #Captured

Is there a criminal in your midst or a new type of crime that is looking for fresh victims? Your police will be providing that information to help make you safer.

Here is one of the best reasons that you should be following your police. They actually want to talk to you! They want to know what concerns you. They want to know what areas of your town you won’t go to after dark. They want to know what you believe they could do better to serve your community. Reach out and say “Hello” to your police department and there is a really good chance they will say hello back.

Need a laugh? There are police departments that specialize in adding humor to the social stream because they know the world can be a pretty depressing place some days and everyone could use a little laugh from time to time and they like to show their lighter side…

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3M_nvQht7-c

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KDrnIP117ts

To give you the best reason to follow your local police, I have to go back 185 years to the birth of modern policing and the man who put in place the rules that still exist today. Sir Robert Peel is the father of modern policing and in 1829 he developed the Peels Principals of Policing.

One of those principles, the seventh, states, “… the police are the public and that the public are the police…” In other words, we all need to be there for each other. The police are members of the public and while they will come to our aid, we must also come to theirs and also to one another. If following, liking, retweeting, subscribing and sharing their information is the best we can do then we should all do it.

Ever think what your town would be like without crime? Imagine a place where tax dollars can be directed at social programs, school lunch and breakfast programs, senior care programs because as a community you insulated yourself so well against crime and made such a strong stance against criminals that the purpose of the police was just to maintain order and give advice as opposed to chasing the bad people around and burdening the courts! Sure, that’s a bit of a pipe-dream, but where would we be today if the dreamers of yesterday didn’t succeed.

Search the name of your police department, go to their website and look for their social icons so that you can help your city, your community and yes, even yourself be a little safer, more aware, educated and sometimes even entertained.

If your police aren’t everything I’ve described, let me know. I’ll reach out to them for you.

 

 

 

 

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The Return of #CopChat

Posted on August 20, 2014 by Tim Burrows

In June of 2012, the first hour long Twitter Chat with the focus being policing took place.

It's baaaaaaaack

It’s baaaaaaaack

History

#CopChat was born from the idea that police and the public could use Twitter to talk in real-time about issues an open and free manner not meant to judge each other, but to learn from each other.

For several months, every Wednesday night at 9pm ET #CopChat served it’s purpose of getting a conversation started.

We talked about real policing issues, use of force, arrest, communication and we also had some fun with favorite movies, songs and food. Police are just people like you and me. Parents, sons, daughters, husbands, wives. They struggle with bills, schedules, deadlines just like everyone else.

One thing where they aren’t like the rest of us is their ability to talk about some of the things they do. Worse is not individually but as a profession they do a terrible job of communicating for various reasons:

  • Laws
  • Privacy
  • Investigations
  • Assumption that we just know
  • Authority complex

So, what is the intent of #CopChat this time around after being off the scene?

  1. We want to try to fix some of the issues the stand in the way of great communication.
  2. Peel back some of the layers of secrecy.
  3. Foster understanding
  4. Build a community

Why now?

Can you think of a better time given what’s happening without overstating the obvious?

What are the #CopChat “rules”? LOL, there are no rules but we want this to be a good experience for everyone so here are some ideas to help.

1. The first rule of #CopChat is we talk about #CopChat. This isn’t FightClub, we have nothing to hide.

2. If you have a blog, website or social channel that you want to share, please do so at the beginning…but we’ll ask that you don’t do any selling of products or services.  This chat is for discussion not sales. If you would like to sponsor a chat or promote your product, email me. ( timburrows1266@gmail.com )

3. There is no insulting, bullying or swearing.  If someone says something that you don’t agree with, respectfully say so and have a discussion.  That is what this is all about…learning and sharing.

4. If a subject presents itself that you may have written a piece for feel free to share at the end of the chat using the hashtag. Depending on the speed of the chat it could get lost in the stream during the middle of it and you’re less likely to get clicks during the chat.

5. If someone tweets something that you feel compelled to RT, do it! But, make it even better by adding your own flavour to it, or conversely, if you disagree, say so and provide the reason why.

6. If someone disagrees with your position take the criticism professionally…no twitter fights.  It won’t serve anyone with any value.  Take it out of the chat and have your fight without the hashtag.  No one wants to see children fight…we want to see adults chat.

7. Finally…no tweet longer apps.  Keep it under 140, no one wants to be clicking links to see the rest of your tweet. It will take people out of the conversation and probably get ignored anyways.

How to follow along.

Naturally, the easiest way is by using the hashtag… #CopChat

Using a dashboard platform like You will want to use TweetDeck / Hootsuite / TweetChat / Twubs etc, to follow the #CopChat.  You may also want create streams to follow @t_burrows and who ever may be co-hosting. Make sure you watch your own mentions stream so you don’t miss anything someone says to you.

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Deja Vu: Part 2 — What Cincinnati Learned

Posted on August 20, 2014 by Tim Burrows

A saying comes to mind here, “A smart man learns from his mistakes. A wise man learns from the mistakes of others.”
When an example exists that shows the ‘then, fix and now’, learn from it. There is no need to make the same mistakes all over again.

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Positive’s From Tragedy: Robin Williams Death

Posted on August 14, 2014 by Tim Burrows

I have been a fan of Robin Williams for as long as I can remember. From Happy Days, to Mork and Mindy, his stand-up comedy and movie roles, he left us with a library of memories that will bring us laughter and make us ponder and respect the greater things in life like poetry, genius and caring in the roles from Dead Poets, Good Will and Patch.

He made me laugh, cry and appreciate many things through his work. He dedicated time and money to charitable causes and to helping others in need. Hallmarks of greatness, he had more than a few.

Through his death he has raised awareness of the demons that those afflicted with mental illness, depression and substance abuse fight every day…often in silence.

To me, his death has 3 positives.

1.) Memories – I asked people on Facebook to share their favourite Robin Williams role and the responses showed just how deep and varied his talents were. It was great thinking about the roles he played and the things he did. Screen shot 2014-08-14 at 9.19.14 AM

2.) Awareness –  With his death I have seen more mentions of suicide prevention information, hotline numbers for people in crisis and resources for people struggling with demons. It’s too bad that a tragedy such as this is what makes people want to share this kind of great information in volumes.

3.) Policies – Twitter vows to “improve their policies“…this is part of a headline from a Washington Post blog story that tells a piece of the story detailing how Zelda Williams has jumped off Twitter and Instagram after some nasty abuse she took on the platforms in the wake of her dad’s death.

But why would it take something like this for Twitter to improve their policies? People have been complaining for a long time about the abuses that have been happening on the networks. The cyber-bullying, the anonymous attacks on people, the callousness some can have in the name of “free speech”.

Twitter hangs on very tight to the rights granted under the 1st Amendment and rightfully they should. In many ways, it is for certain a big part of the success of Twitter but often that protective stance has allowed bullies and abusers to go beyond what most people in society would consider appropriate.

It’s too bad that any tragedy like this has to be the catalyst for change when there have been so many more examples of death and abuse fuelled by bullies. If this one makes the social networks better for all, then at least some more good will come out of it.

Thank you Robin, for everything.

Photo Credit: IMDB site

Photo Credit: IMDB site

Posted in Inspiration | 8 Comments

Do Police Matter? Take Ferguson For Example

Posted on August 12, 2014 by Tim Burrows

Some very valuable questions here about Ferguson and the situation that has developed.
Questions that don’t need answers as much as points of fact that need solutions.

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Introducing: Comment Likes

Posted on August 6, 2014 by Tim Burrows

Nice addition to interaction and engagement on blogs.

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Anatomy of a Nice Tweet

Posted on August 6, 2014 by Tim Burrows

Every once in a while a Tweet or Facebook post comes out of the streams that stand out a little more than the average post or update.

Here’s one that happened yesterday.

https://twitter.com/ShawnaCoxon/status/496768517665226752

To a lot of people this won’t look like much, but to a teen, well…it speaks to them. SO let’s take a look at the anatomy of this tweet.

Hashtags

#Molly #Veld2014 #Toxic – Veld is an electronic music festival that happens in Toronto and at this years party it appears a drug caused two deaths and a bunch of hospitalizations.  Molly is the nickname for MDMA or 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine. Also known as Ecstasy, aka…a party drug. Toxic was the problem here and that sends a clear message.

The use of these hashtags targeted the desired audience and the drug believed to be the root of the problem.

Two to three hashtags are ideal with two being better.

Context

Molly wasn’t just a drug in this tweet…”she” was hidden in plain sight not as a thing, but with human characteristics which made talking about her easier.

Information

Why Molly is a problem, a phone number to call and removal of the fear of being charged for taking her home or having her were all clear.

Audience

The tweet was in the language of kids trying to hide something. It was all coded. Not to be so obscure as to not be understood, but in a cool, relateable way that kids would understand.

Size

140 characters available…140 used. This is the only problem if you are looking for ReTweets with comments. Not so much of a big deal since Twitter re-worked the RT function a while back.

Smaller is always better, but there isn’t too much you could cut out of this without losing some of a very important and big message. Here’s a slight re-work…

Did u get #Molly at #VELD2014 & take her home? Call 416-808-2222 or drop her off at a police stn-no charges. She’s #toxic

Aim for 100 characters whenever you can as a maximum. Not always realistic, but a great goal to always go for.

Boost

Given the amount of text, this isn’t possible in this case, but adding a picture of Molly would have been gold for parents to see.

But, you could easily jump over to Facebook and make a much bigger information blast with pics and links and not worry so much about the real estate available for use.

Nice tweet @ShawanCoxon!

 

 

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