What is community policing?
Before we can talk about how to use social media in community policing, we need to define what community policing is. According to the U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs:
“Community policing is a philosophy that promotes organizational strategies which support the systematic use of partnerships and problem solving techniques to proactively address the immediate conditions that give rise to public safety issues such as crime, social disorder, and fear of crime.”
How’s that for a run on sentence? But let’s pull out some key words from that definition for a closer look.
Community policing is a philosophy – a way of thinking, being and acting. It’s the driving force behind what you do.
Community policing supports partnerships. The police can’t do it on their own. I’ve never heard a police agency say, “We don’t want help. We don’t want to partner.” It’s usually the opposite. But the folks they reach out to don’t always want to partner with them, and that’s a problem.
Community policing is proactive. Nobody ever pinned on a badge and said, “I just wanted to be a cop so I can sit in my car and wait for the next call to come in.” The police want to be proactive! They want to find the person who is about to break into your home, not respond to the call after it already happened.
And then there is the fear of crime. Fear of crime is toxic to the community and to police reputation. It is the perception that the community doesn’t feel safe – whether they are or not. For a resident to feel safe to walk around at night, to park their car somewhere, or to send their kid to school, what is more important: the feeling of safety and security, or actual safety and security?
Now you may say, “actual safety and security, of course!” Well, let’s think about that.
Do you know the actual crime stats in your area? You may think you do, because you watch the news. But the news only highlights the bad. When was the last time you saw the news story “Police help motorist change a tire”? Probably never.
You may think you live in an area with high crime, but do you really?
I would suggest the fear of crime is more important to address than crime itself. When people fear crime, they live in a state of fear. And we don’t want that. It makes it harder to fight crime because the residents don’t want to get involved in something potentially dangerous.
But banding together doesn’t just include police, fire and EMS. It’s other government agencies, groups, non-profits, private businesses, media, and more. Think I’m dreaming too big? This is not new. Let’s go back to the 1800s.
Sir Robert Peel and the origin of community policing
Sir Robert Peel is considered the father of modern policing. He said, “The police are the public, and the public are the police.”
Now Peel lived in a very different time. In the early 1800s, community patrol was just the night watch. Lamp lighters, making sure no one was wandering the streets at night with bad intentions.
The public chose the neighbors that they felt were upstanding people, and entrusted the task of community safety to them. People would go to bed at night and personally know the individuals patrolling the streets, so they trusted them. They knew they were good people.
So where have we gone wrong? I use that “we” very broadly. We as the public. We as the police. We as a society. We seem to have a trust issue, globally.
Personal relationships are critical
Sir Robert also believed that the most important factor of community policing was personal relationships.
People today are demanding that the police are more transparent. Some are calling for the police to go away altogether. Here’s what’s interesting: Calls for service still increase in volume every year. If there is a trust issue, who is still calling the cops? Apparently a lot of people!
That’s good. So why are they calling? I would suggest it’s because there is still some level of trust left.
Here’s the thing: the police are a member of the public, but you don’t have the time to go out there and act like you are. This is where partnerships are key. Partnering with hospitals, civic organizations, local clubs and then doing safety talks and acting like a real person with a family and hobbies and volunteer experiences. This lets the public know who you are, personally.
If calls for service are up and police retention and recruitment are down, and now I’m suggesting that you have to engage more with the community, you are probably thinking, “With what personnel? How?”
I thought this blog was about social media?
Yes, it is. Social media is the answer to the question: how do you find time to engage more with the community. It’s the secret to effective community policing.
Here’s the state of social media in law enforcement today:
An IACP survey showed 69.4% of law enforcement agencies have a social media policy. Having a policy means almost 70% of agencies have social media programs and procedures in place. That’s good!
However, 52.9% do not have defined goals or outcomes related to social media. So we have policy, but not goals. That’s a problem.
Finally, 80.4% of agencies said their social media has helped them solve crimes. That tells us social media is extremely effective… when used correctly.
There are 3 main engagement strategies for social media:
1) Outreach and awareness – Let people know what’s going on. Be transparent with your community.
2) Dialogue and participation – Create active dialogue with the community. But be ready – not everyone is going to be a fan. The dialogue is going to happen with or without you – you may as well face it head on and handle it.
3) Community partnership – Ask the public to participate in partnership events, as well as help solve crime. This covers both the fun run with the fire department and asking your community to help you locate a suspect.
Questions to evaluate your social media readiness:
- Who’s running it?
- Is it worth looking at?
- Is it shareable?
- Are we consistent?
- Are we mixing our content to leverage all 3 social media strategies?
- Would you enjoy looking at it?
- Does it give the feeling of “These are just good people trying to help”? If not, begin again.
My top five social media tips:
1) Silence breeds skepticism – Saying nothing usually implies you are hiding something. It causes rumors to spread and other people to define your reputation, instead of you defining it.
2) Never delete negative comments – Respond to all of them. Deleting comments makes it look like they are true and you need to hide that fact. Respond professionally and transparently.
3) Invite the skeptics into your programs and post about it – If an organization is very negative about you on social media, partner with them first. Then post about it and include pictures. It transforms public opinion one organization at a time.
4) It’s ok to use humor, when appropriate – People follow accounts that are entertaining. It’s ok to be playful and funny with the small stuff, so when you need help with the serious stuff you actually have an audience watching. I’ve seen social media accounts with more followers than residents in their city. They were fun to follow, so people followed them.
5) Consistency is key – If you post sporadically or your account goes stale, people assume nothing important happens there. Why would they follow an account that never posts anything?
Once the police are seen as part of the public and not just badge wearers, community policing lives again. And remember, community policing is a philosophy ‒ it’s not written in concrete. If you have your own ideas for how to engage with your community beyond social media, go for it! Sir Robert Peel would approve.
