Follow @wmpolice – how West Midlands Police engages with communities

These new forms of communication have created a new intelligence gathering resource. For example, issues or complaints can be captured, using an online form that go directly to the Professional Standards Department, allowing trends to be captured and issues to be dealt with appropriately. Furthermore, the ‘Rate Your Police’ website provides the police with information about concerns raised by the public. 

The new tools have also helped with investigations. The information and evidence that investigators can gather in the immediate aftermath of an incident are often crucial to successfully solving a crime. People are able to send photos and videos, and a commentary on events as they happen. These can now be transmitted quickly to the police, for possible use in investigations. 

The disorder across the West Midlands during August 2011 provides a clear example of the benefits that new electronic media can provide. On the 8th August, news of potential disorder spread on social media sites. As a result, communications managers and the multi-media team monitored these sites throughout the morning and sought to counter rumours.  Without having established a trusted digital presence, it would not have been possible for the teams to counter rumours from which further trouble could have escalated. For example, the force used social media to repudiate false rumours that a mosque had been petrol bombed in Coventry and that Birmingham New Street Station had caught fire. Alongside dealing with rumours, Twitter proved to be an invaluable source of community intelligence that enabled appropriate responses to potential threats and addressing of concerns and tensions. Monitoring by WMP indicated that each time a tweet was sent from the police account, it was instantly retweeted by hundreds of followers, helping to spread messages the force wanted to disseminate.   Following the disorder, the force received hundreds of messages from its followers on Twitter expressing thanks for its efforts.

Before the August 2011 disorder, WMP had around 8,000 followers on Twitter. By 17 August this had increased to 24,722. During the same period the WMP Facebook account grew from just over 6,000 followers to 9,129 on 17 August. The local police sites affected by the disorder saw similar increases in followers.  These increases demonstrate that communities turn to social media to find accurate information quickly and they reflect the success of the force’s social media communications strategy during the disorder, with their accounts providing trustworthy and timely updates.

During the unrest and the days following it, the appeal section of the WMP website received over 300,000 views; the main police sites received over 1.2 million visits; and an email account which was created specifically to allow people to send in videos and pictures of the disorder to help with the investigation received over 800 responses.