{"id":3142,"date":"2012-10-04T14:36:17","date_gmt":"2012-10-04T14:36:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thesocialelement.agency\/?p=3142"},"modified":"2023-11-27T11:56:32","modified_gmt":"2023-11-27T11:56:32","slug":"uk-police-and-social-media","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesocialelement.agency\/uk-police-and-social-media","title":{"rendered":"The UK Police and Social Media. Partners in Crime?"},"content":{"rendered":"

This week many people in the UK are thinking of the two slain Manchester policewomen, as the two murder victims,\u00a0PC Fiona Bone and her colleague PC Nicola Hughes were laid to rest. Their funeral cort\u00e8ges<\/a> on Wednesday and Thursday in Manchester made a path amongst crowds of the public standing side by side with police in hushed respect.<\/strong><\/p>\n

A recent trending hashtag, part of the coverage, caught my eye when it first appeared. It touched my heart and piqued my curiosity. #coverforGMP (the hashtag broadcast to police personnel for volunteers to stand in so that GMPolice could attend their colleagues’ funerals) was hugely successful and made a big impact in what were already emotionally-charged days.
\nBut since when did the UK police start recruiting for cover via social media?\u00a0 I started some research into the relationship between the public, the police, and social media.<\/p>\n

How did it begin?<\/strong>
\nThe first links between the UK police and social media started back in 2008, when some forces started experimenting. Firstly this was at an unofficial level, with initiatives by individual officers and then with varying degrees of official support, including the eventual sponsorship of the
Association of Chief Police Officers<\/a> (ACPO). Police websites generally use YouTube and Flickr to publish videos and photographs, and many have Facebook pages. Increasingly, forces are hosting webcast meetings, sometimes simultaneously in a physical location and online. Now there are around 1,000 approved police Twitter accounts, who operate from force-accredited accounts with the approval of their senior officers. Of course others, like Constable Chaos above, tweet anonymously under pseudonyms.<\/p>\n

How is social media being used by the police?<\/strong><\/p>\n