Central Jersey police using social media to keep public informed
Departmental Facebook, Twitter use part of growing national trend
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Piscataway, 6/27/2011. -- Dispatcher Jillian Sofield and Lieutenant Edgar Velasquez work together to post a traffic advisory for July 4th to subscribers of the Nixle web service from the dispatch station at Piscataway Police Headquarters on Monday, June 27, 2011. AUGUSTO F. MENEZES/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER. METRO. BRI 0628 Social Media. B69114653Z.1 / A.F. MENEZES/MyCentralJersey
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Piscataway, 6/27/2011. -- Dispatcher Jillian Sofield and Lieutenant Edgar Velasquez work together to post a traffic advisory for July 4th to subscribers of the Nixle web service from the dispatch station at Piscataway Police Headquarters on Monday, June 27, 2011. AUGUSTO F. MENEZES/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER. METRO. BRI 0628 Social Media. B69114653Z.1 / A.F. MENEZES/MyCentralJersey
Piscataway, 6/27/2011. -- Dispatcher Jillian Sofield and Lieutenant Edgar Velasquez work together to compose and post a traffic advisory for July 4th to subscribers of the Nixle web service from the dispatch station at Piscataway Police Headquarters on Monday, June 27, 2011. AUGUSTO F. MENEZES/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER. METRO. BRI 0628 Social Media. B69114653Z.1 / A.F. MENEZES/MyCentralJersey
On the Web
For more information about the International Association of Chiefs of Police Center for Social Media, or to use a searchable database to find out what New Jersey police departments are making use of social media, go online to www.iacpsocialmedia.org. To find out more about Nixle, or to check what local police departments are using it, go to www.Nixle.com.
CENTRAL JERSEY — Mike Parker has a message for law enforcement organizations that have gotten into the habit of posting news releases and other public information to their department websites.
“If you’re doing that, you’re doing great — for 10 years ago,” Parker said.
A growing number of Central Jersey police departments and prosecutor’s offices are starting to use social media outlets like Facebook, Twitter and other websites to accelerate dissemination of public information to residents, but they still remain exceptions to the rule. That’s why Parker, a captain with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department and an internationally renowned expert in the field of public information in law enforcement, is joining a growing chorus of voices recommending that more agencies give the concept some serious consideration.
“This is the way our society is now, especially with our younger generation,” Hillsborough Police Chief Paul Kaminsky said in agreement. “They want immediate notification.”
Hillsborough’s police department in 2009 registered with Nixle, a subscription-based information service that allows law enforcement and other government agencies to connect with residents in real time via text messages, emails and other forms of online correspondence. About two dozen police departments in Middlesex, Somerset, Hunterdon and Union counties have Nixle accounts, although only slightly more than half of them post regular updates.
Hillsborough went a step further and created a Twitter feed that automatically tweets Nixle updates as they are issued, Kaminsky said. The setup allows any of the township’s nearly 40,000 residents spread across 55 square miles to receive instant alerts about traffic conditions, road closures, suspicious vehicles and more — information that can get from an officer’s desktop computer straight to a resident’s smartphone in a matter of seconds.
“We normally posted these things on local television, which was great if you were home … and we also used 610 AM local radio through the (township) Office of Emergency Management,” Kaminsky said. “But this is just a way to get the information out quick in the most convenient ways possible.”
The police department issues about 10 to 15 alerts per month, and the free service has been received well by officers and residents alike, Kaminsky said.
“We strongly recommend it (to other police departments),” he said. “It’s definitely worthwhile.”
Nixle subscribers in Piscataway had an inside track to avoiding traffic Friday morning, when a notification advised that a portion of Centennial Avenue was experiencing alternating lane closures for a milling and paving project.
Piscataway Police Lt. Edgar Velasquez said the department signed up for the service a little more than six months ago and also has been pleased with the results. Township police dispatchers handle Nixle updates, Velasquez said, meaning vital public information isn’t even slowed down by an intermediary en route to residents.
“They’re the ones getting the first calls,” Velasquez said of the dispatchers. “Plus they work with computers all day long, so it seemed like a natural progression.”
Praise for the service and other sources of social media as conduits for public information was echoed by every keynote speaker at a recent roundtable conference held at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in Manhattan. Police chiefs, prosecutor’s office representatives and members of the media from across Central and North Jersey attended the event, where Parker and others outlined examples from across the country.
Speakers described how in Baltimore, Twitter has replaced telephone hotlines as the principal link between police and reporters; within 20 minutes of just about every major crime event, 140 characters or less of details are sent out to media subscribers. The Philadelphia Police Department has become a national phenomenon on Facebook, amassing more than 35,000 “likes,” others noted, while Toronto’s police department has more than 13,000 Twitter followers (a quirky sergeant in the department, Tim Burrows, has nearly as many in his own right, occasionally tweeting as frequently as 10 times an hour).
Using social media eases burdens on dispatchers, improves media relations, aids disaster management and generates tips for time-sensitive investigations, speakers noted. And it doesn’t hurt that Facebook and Twitter are both free services with combined user totals approaching 1 billion around the world.
“Social media is not a fad,” said Nancy Kolb, a senior program manager for the International Association of Chiefs of Police. “And it will continue to evolve.”
According to estimates developed by the association, or IACP — which through its Center for Social Media helps individual police departments integrate online tools into agency operations — as of 2010 at least 1,300 U.S. police agencies used Facebook while more than 600 were on Twitter. One of the first state law-enforcement organizations to use Twitter was the New Jersey State Police, which today has more than 6,500 followers.
“At first I did it just for the media with a closed account … but I just got so tired of refusing people who requested it and weren’t part of the media that I just said, ‘You know what? It’s public information anyhow,’ ” said Sgt. Stephen Jones, the acting director of communication for the State Police.
The service has been helpful in spreading the word about events ranging from tornado warnings to bank robbery investigations, Jones said.
“There’s obviously a public safety benefit to asking for public input, whether it’s an Amber Alert type of thing … or something else,” Jones said. “It may even be something like we’re looking for who’s got this car involved in a hit-and-run.”
“Our goal is to get a lot more aggressive with this, too,” Jones added. “I wouldn’t say we’re ahead of the curve by any means. There’s still a lot of room for improvement.”
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