Police-Tweets let public see

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. — Riding side by side as a police officer answers a call for help or investigates a brutal crime gives people an up-close look at the gritty and sometimes dangerous situations officers can experience on the job.

But a new approach to informing the public about what officers do is taking hold in police departments across the United States and Canada — one that is far less dangerous for residents but, police say, just as informative.

With virtual ride-alongs on Twitter, or Tweet-alongs, the curious public need only a computer or smart phone to get a glimpse into law enforcement officers’ daily routines.

Tweet-alongs typically are scheduled for a set number of hours, with an officer — or a designated Tweeter like the department’s public-information officer — posting regular updates to Twitter about what they are seeing as they perform their normal onduty routines. The Tweets, which also include photos and links to videos of the officers, can encompass an array of activities — everything from an officer responding to a homicide or to a noise complaint.

Police departments say virtual ride-alongs reach a wider range of people and help add transparency to the job.

“People spend hardearned money on taxes to allow the government to provide services. That’s police, fire, water, streets, the whole works, and there should be a way for those government agencies to let the public know what they’re getting for their money,” said Steve Allender, chief of the Rapid City Police Department in South Dakota, which started offering Tweet-alongs several months ago after watching departments like those in Seattle, Kansas City, Mo., and Las Vegas do so.

On the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, Tarah Heupel, the public-information officer for the Rapid City Police Department, rode alongside street-crimes officer Ron Terviel as he patrolled Rapid City. Heupel posted updates every few minutes about what Terviel was doing, including him citing a woman for public intoxication, responding to a call of three teenagers attempting to steal cough syrup and body spray from a store, and locating a man who ran from the scene of an accident. Photos were included in some of the updates.

Michael Taddesse, a 34-year-old university career specialist in Arlington, Texas, has done several ride-alongs with police and regularly follows multiple departments that conduct Tweet-alongs.

“I think the only way to effectively combat crime is to have a community that is engaged and understands what’s going on,” he said.

Ride-alongs where “you’re out in the elements” are very different than sitting behind a computer during a Tweetalong and the level of danger is “dramatically decreased,” he said. But in both instances, the public gains new information about the call, what laws may have been broken and what transpires, he added.

For police departments, Tweet-alongs are just one more way to connect directly with a community through social media.

More than 92 percent of police departments use social media, according to a survey of 600 agencies in 48 states that was conducted by the International Association of Chiefs of Police’s Center for Social Media. And Nancy Kolb, senior program manager for the center, called Tweet-alongs a “growing trend” among departments of all sizes.

There is no set protocol, and departments are free to conduct the Tweet-alongs how they see fit, she said.

In Ontario, Canada, the Niagara Regional Police Service conducted its first virtual ride-along in August over a busy eight-hour Friday night shift. The Police Department’s followers were able to see a Tweet whenever the police unit was dispatched to one of the more than 140,000 calls received that night.

Richard Gadreau, the social media officer for the Police Department, said officers routinely take people out on real ride-alongs, but there is a waiting list, and preference is given to people interested in becoming police officers.

With Tweet-alongs, many calls also mean many Tweets. Kolb said departments are cognizant of cluttering people’s Twitter feeds.

That’s why the Rapid City Police Department decided to create a separate account for the Tweet-along, Allender said.

Kolb also said officers are careful not to post personal or sensitive information. Officers typically do not post child-abuse or domesticabuse cases, and they usually Tweet about calls only after they leave the scene in order to protect officers and callers.

But Allender said Tweetalongs also show some of the more outrageous calls that police deal with on a regular basis — like the person who breaks out the window of a police car while the officer is standing on the sidewalk.

“Real life is funnier than any comedy show out there and not to make fun of people, embarrass them or humiliate them, but people do funny things,” Allender said. “I mean, that guy deserves a little bit of ridicule, and everyone who would be watching would agree. That’s just good, clean fun to me.”