As I will be beavering away at work and to be honest should be working instead of participating in Police Chat I have decided to scribble my thoughts here on my blog in my own time.
As the media article says Social Media can be a double edged sword when it comes to something as important as solving crime as you all know I am a great lover of Twitter and it's short timely messages.
I am now also a fan of how it helps people connect with the Police with things such as Police Chat and the way wIK uses his IT skills to help with multi media and Police on-line presence.
At first I was disappointed that Warwickshire appeared to be a bit reluctant to use such a communication tool and not participate, however during my short time tweeting I really do think careful consideration should be given as to how twitter is used.
It is great for public participation and ideas being put forward to help mould our Police Forces. ie (Police Chat) the recent (Twit Cast) both of those are about public participation and delivering information, using the skills of the general public to give advice about broadcasting and general Social Media and web usage.
I also think quite by accident a formula used by myself could be used to help Local PCs or SNT spread the word of crime. It's no skin off my nose to place my PCs local crime update on my Hyper Local blog then Tweet it (That means I am participating) whilst doing something I enjoy. Why should my already stretched PC blog and tweet when he should be solving and preventing crime.
All he has had to do is send one email to a mailing list and the recipients will have distributed the information in different ways, word of mouth, blogging, tweeting, printing it off and delivering it. It seems to me the more people he has on his mailing list the more the information will get distributed.
I don't think Social Media should be used to solve crime it should be used to inform the General Public.
Those that pick up on something should call the Police and report in the normal way.
Social Media can be a bit like a gossip machine there may be some truth in the gossip but time is spent finding out what that truth is and where it came from.
Social Media can be used effectively for public participation, joining meetings passing ideas, distributing information, giving feedback.
I suppose I was disappointed in Warwickshire because they hadn't asked for input from the public using the methods that WMP and others are using.
Surely Social Media can help the Big Society more than it can hinder it and is one way of Public Participation.
Surely Social Media can help the Big Society more than it can hinder it and is one way of Public Participation.