Social Media In Public Safety Organizations

Social Media and its use in Public Safety Organizations

Public safety organizations are always in a constant state of change and evolution. With the current systems now serving more than three-hundred million people, (Worldmeters, 2015) it is no surprise that communicating important information to the public has become a significant issue. In times past, organizations such as police and fire departments relied on print, radio, and television platforms to communicate with individuals and communities alike. These long standing forms of communication have given way to the rise of social media, and many public safety organizations have started using these services as new, and in some cases even primary, forms of communication with the public. In

One of these benefits is the wide audience these organizations can now reach. Previously an organizations’ audience was limited to forms of media that were locally available, but social media networks now allow us to connect and share important information with an infinite number of people worldwide. Another benefit of communicating with social media is the speed at which information can be shared. It is now possible to have near instant updates on important information such as Amber Alerts, severe weather warnings, and even information on criminals. This is a vast improvement over previous forms of communication that could take hours or even days to provide updates on events. A good example of this is the Colorado Bureau of Investigation which routinely makes posts about credit card scams, sexual offenders and identity theft. “CBI in the News...The CBI Identity Theft Unit's award-winning victim advocate (Hazel Heckers) has seen a dramatic surge in tax-related identity theft victim calls. (Facebook, Colorado Bureau of Investigation,

One example of this came in 2012 when there was a rash of misinformation spread on social media in the aftermath of the Sandy Hook Massacre. During this time, various social media users posed as members of both the Newton City Police and Connecticut State Police while spreading false and misleading information about the incident. (nydailynews.com, 2012) The spread of misinformation can be harmful in several ways, such as people making uninformed decisions, causing panic, and even undermining the publics’ trust in an organization. Another downside can come from an organizations’ employee’s use of social media. In the last few years, there has been a rise in the number of public employees (such as police officers) finding themselves under scrutiny for their use of social media (mysanantonio.com, 2014)). These misuses of social media often arise out of the employees misunderstanding of the organizations policies (policeone.com, 2010), and his or her responsibility in protecting the organizations image (iacpsocialmedia.org, 2015). Another weakness that social media has is there are some organizations, such as the Sterling Police Department, that begin to utilize social media (Facebook.com, 2015), but then abandon their efforts. This could be potentially harmful, as it conveys a lack of commitment in communicating with the public and following through with