Follow @wmpolice – how West Midlands Police engages with communities

Costs and savings

The use of social media has not meant a reduction in traditional press work – in fact, quite the opposite. As journalists pick up more information through social media, the Corporate Communications Department now receives more requests for information. At the same time, the use of social media has not required recruitment of new staff, who would be dedicated to communicating on social media all day - often a concern to public agencies with no experience in social media. In fact, staff have undertaken social media activities as part of their daily work. 

There is no cash budget for this work – staff time on social media forms a core part of the role of everyone in the Corporate Communications Department.  Individual’s dedication to their social media responsibility will effect the amount of time they contribute. 

While social media have brought no cashable savings, they have meant that WMP can reach a huge number of individuals at low cost and induce behaviour change which creates savings. For example, in the UK there is a 999 emergency number and a 101 non-emergency number through which the police can be contacted.  On 1 February 2013 WMP held a tweetathon to document the 999 calls it receives on an average day. This highlighted how it often received inappropriate calls to the 999 number, wasting police time and money. The campaign was picked up by celebrity Peter Schofield (who has 2,200,888 followers) and he retweeted many of most shocking tweets - and also sent the tweet below. This meant that the tweets by West Midlands Police were able to reach over 2 million people. The campaign had an impact on decreasing the number of calls received by the 999 number and encouraged more people to call the 101 number.