Forget about virtual tweet-a-longs or twitter chats to let your community know what’s happening. How about hitting a door with a search warrant and tweeting while it’s happening.
It appears that is just what Sgt Mark Jones of the North Wales Police did today and did a great job of it.
https://twitter.com/NWPMarkJones/status/487505957183049728
https://twitter.com/NWPMarkJones/status/487517053541416960
https://twitter.com/NWPMarkJones/status/487524283594596352
https://twitter.com/NWPMarkJones/status/487528849287446528
https://twitter.com/NWPMarkJones/status/487536160886231040
https://twitter.com/NWPMarkJones/status/487601253556711424
You can see Sgt Jones was able to use humor, pictures and words perfectly to describe what was happening and if you happened to be one of Mark’s followers and you were online when it all went down I bet you were entertained and educated…quite possibly, cringing as well.
As much fun as something like this would be to do, there are some considerations that should be made.
1.) Knock – Knock
Making this kind of announcement live is a bit dangerous. Given the amount of work that goes into a search warrant the last thing you would want to do is tip-off your target that you’re coming to say hello. A paranoid dealer or a smart business man will be watching and listening to see if there is anything that might disrupt their hard work. It would be horrible to lose the advantage of surprise and before you know it, your paranoid target gets rid of any evidence prior to your arrival.
2.) Identifying your starting point – Parking lot
Warrants usually start close to the target location. By showing your starting point you are tipping off people in that area where you are going. If I’m a dealer in the area, I’m now taking steps to ensure you aren’t getting me.
3.) Hello Puppy – Awesome
Adding the picture of your police dog into a running story like this? That is just awesome. Anytime you can get the puppies in a picture that adds value, you’re onto greatness. I would have used very different words for the tweet though.
Timing
This was a great way to engage your community and talk about what you are doing to help make them safer, but at the same time, your investment in the project has to be protected. Think “Recorded Earlier.” or “Tape Delay.”
You could very easily take pictures as you go along on the door knock, document everything you need, take your notes and then put out the entire event after it has occurred.
The public would understand and you keep the integrity of the operation intact and it would still be a great value to your audience.
The last tweet above is a nugget of overlooked gold in my mind that doesn’t happen nearly enough. CLOSURE. Sgt Jones has grabbed the interest of his audience and instead of leaving them hanging, he let the community know what the result was.
Next Steps
Here is where the agency can capitalize on what just occurred.
- Talk about why a search warrant for was done! Let your community know why you would hit a door for drugs…the spin-off crime, the gateways drugs, the ‘leading to the next player’.
- Turn that into a video of the effects of drug use on a person with doctors and social workers help.
- Offer an electronic document to your community for parents with a “what to look for” approach for parents.
Use what you have and re-purpose it for more information. One event, three more things you can talk about and create content and conversations around.
The time stamp is a little confusing to me. Do you think these were really live tweets or from a raid that happened and then scheduled?
Lots of daylight at 0341, unless that is your time???
If you live Tweet the broken door jamb you better hope you hit the right door. A tweet 5 minutes later, “Whoops, wrong door.” could be a real black eye for the department.
I would also be hopeful that the department live tweets other events that help the department connect with the community and prevent crime.
I’m a little confused on the time stamp too…being in Wales, I’m not sure how the timing is being seen through the whole thing.
Super-interesting idea and certainly an attention-grabber … Drug warrants are so high-liability though that the risk is also very high. What if you DO hit the wrong door? What if you end up in a fight or an armed encounter, or worse yet, there are children in the home that are caught up in the mess? You’d probably have to stop tweeting, then offer an explanation… Either way the media would be all over you …
I don’t want to be a total downer, though – let’s say you’d have to have “media” as part of your Op-Plan, or a separate op-plan for media with contingencies laid out …
You’re absolutely right on both comments.
There is huge risk with something like this that if it was something you were going to do, you have to be prepared for all the possibilities and include it in the plan.
That’s exactly why I would do the “Recorded Earlier” method and once it’s done, then put it all out there.
We did this for a SWAT drug lab take down a couple years ago….the “tape delay” concept was the central theme in “live tweeting” it though. First tweets rolled out after the team had hit the door and secured the suspects inside. No noticeable drawback from the delay and the community was quite appreciative of the information stream coming out.
Thanks Chris.
I think that is probably the safest way to go with it given the possibilities of interception prior to the door knock.
Even if the public noticed the ‘delay’ or questioned it, I believe they would be more than understanding of the reasons for safety and effectiveness.
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