SOCIAL MEDIA AND POLICING: REVOLUTION OR MISSED OPPORTUNITY?
Some of you will remember Social Media Revolution, the 2009 YouTube video by tech writer Erik Qualman. It became the most watched and shared video on YouTube that year thanks to its almost giddy pacing and fasten-your-seatbelts-and-enjoy-the-revolution take on social media. Those were heady days for anyone who dipped their toes in the fast-moving waters of digital media — it was no different for me.
In 2010 I rode the prevailing winds of digital optimism writing that social media could transform policing at a cultural level, causing police organizations to embrace “…a new way of thinking about how they relate to their community” – in effect changing the policing paradigm.
With the role that social media plays in society and how it conditions civic interactions being questioned across the globe, I thought it appropriate to revisit the role that it plays in law enforcement.
Ten years ago I argued that it could revolutionize policing. Was I wrong? Was I right? Or, as I suspect, is the answer more complex than that?
Now, I’ve asked a couple of the early champions of social media and policing, Lauri Stevens of SMILE Conference fame, and former Toronto Police Service constable Scott Mills (also known by his Twitter handle @GraffitiBMXCop) to give me their impressions on whether social media ushered in a revolution in policing, amounted to a missed opportunity or something in between. And more importantly, what its future role and place in law enforcement might be.
Look for that story and the verdict here, next week. In the meantime, I invite you to read my earlier article and tell me what YOU think.