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

2. 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)

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

4. 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

5. Results

6. 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

7. 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

8. 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

9. 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

10. Thank You!