Social Media and Police: Technology Uses and Challenges Melchor C. de Guzman Ronald D. Hunter Georgia Gwinnett College Lawrenceville, GA November 6, 2015

Background Social media are becoming the dominant communication media (Trottier, 2012) Social media are becoming more popular tools for public agencies Federal agencies aggressive (22 out of 24 major agencies) (Wilshusen, 2010) Police lag in Web 2.0 usage (Stevens, 2010) and the internet (Jones & de Guzman, 2010) Social media could be a community policing tool IACP recommendations Social media create communities (Scheier, 2010; Smith, 2008) Link police and citizens (Stevens, 2010) Co-produce safety (Osimo, 2008; Spizman & Miller, 2013) Social media could be tools to counter bad press (Schulenberg & Chenier, 2014)

Research Questions To what extent are social media applications being currently utilized by police agencies? How do police agencies use social media applications?

Methods Content analysis of police department websites Sample: US police departments employing 250 or more police officers Data sources: LEMAS and Websites Coded usage of social media based on IACP (2010) recommendations

Results

Social Media Usage by Police Departments, 2010 vs 2015 (N=163)   Social Media Applications Year 2010 Year 2015 n Percent Facebook 41 25.2 145 88.9 Presents Videos 26 16 100.0 Press Releases 30 18.4 Recruitment 28 17.2 Road Closure/Weather Information 20 12.3 Crime solver 15 9.2 Community Outreach 13 8.0 123 75.5 Agency Blog 14 8.6 25 15.3 3 5.2 12 85.7 60.0 Crime Prevention 8 57.1 23 92.0 Crime Solver 7 50.0 48.0 Twitter 25.3 133 81.6 38 92.7 Road Closure/Weather Information 24 58.5 63.4 101 75.9 11 26.8 35 85.4 21.4 You Tube 29 135 82.8 99 73.3 2 1.2 6 4.4 6.7 127 94.0 3.7 78 57.8 17 10.4 34 25.9

Best Practices Police departments have greatly utilized social media for emergencies and information dissemination Social media have been more useful for recruitment Social media have been used more often for crime solving Policing has become interactive that resulted in greater information sharing

Challenges Use of social media for community policing remains scant Community engagement is minimal Language One way communication Community agenda setting Blogging remains a challenge Crime prevention Police legitimacy Smaller departments lag behind compared to bigger departments

Conclusion Police have greatly improved their social media presence Future research directions Contribution of police media to policing goals Utility of social media for police performance Acceptability of social media as a policing tool

Thank You!