South Wales Police has been recognised as having the first collective chief officer account of all the UK police forces on Twitter.
Set up and run by the South Wales Police Chief Officer Group, ‘Chiefs_SWP’ has over 70 followers and is the first Twitter account in the UK to be run by the Chief Officer Group of a police force.
Assistant Chief Constable Matt Jukes, who has actively used the account since its first tweet at the beginning of August said: “Our objective in creating the ‘Chiefs_SWP’ account was to make ourselves more accessible.
“We appreciate that when you reach a certain rank in policing, a lot of the work that goes on is very much behind closed doors, so using Twitter will allow us to give the public a flavour of what chief officers do on a daily basis – hopefully showing we don’t live and work in ivory towers.
“If the public know the name of their local neighbourhood policing officer and how to contact them, then we’re going along the right tracks. Since the Chief Officer team provide the overall direction for the force and the public expect that we spend their money wisely in doing this, this seemed to be a positive step”.
Nick Keane, Digital Engagement and Knowledge Business Advisor for the National Policing Improvement Agency (NPIA) said: “South Wales Police are showing that by using new media they can increase their engagement with the people they serve and provide them with another point of access to information about policing.
“It’s especially good to see their senior officers leading the way in using Twitter to communicate about the work they’re doing.”
Some of the chief tweets posted so far include:
“ACC JK: Great to see our officers in Butetown for a BPA workshop – I went to a good BPA conf in Sheffield on Tuesday”
“ACC MJ: Started day with Firearms Officers’ fitness test on 1st day of their training. Passed (thankfully or I’d never have lived it down!)”
“ACC MJ: Visited our teams on this. Know anything? @CrimestoppersUK www.south-wales.police.uk/en/content/cms/news/operation-jupiter/”
“ACC Jukes, 5am Wed: Up to meet Staff Officer on route to joint army/police exercise. Cold & dark- our shift workers know that already!”
The main ‘swpolice’ account has now reached over 1150 followers and continues to be a successful tool for police to spread crime-fighting news and consult with the community.
Answering neighbourhood queries, providing targeted crime prevention advice to interested parties before social events, speaking in the real-time with demonstrators, and posting twitpics and videos of officers going about their tours of duty are just some of the ways the force’s Twitter has been used to interact with the public to date.
Use of the social network to appeal for information to help solve crime has also helped officers to rapidly communicate to a mass audience, with one appeal trending as a top 10 most talked about topic on the site.
The ‘helicops’ Twitter, ran by the South and East Wales air support unit, tweets the adventures of the police helicopter as it flies the skies and has also attracted over 1000 followers.
ACC Jukes added: “Twitter has also proved to be an ideal way to consult with the public and show support for causes both locally and nationally. Via the ‘swpolice’ account, we’ve answered questions on recruitment, operational results and more.
“The amount of support we’ve received has been tremendous, and we’re hoping to build on that success with the ‘Chiefs’ account.”
