Wiltshire Police the Public Trying to Report Crime Over Social Media

Home , Borough of Swindon, Leicestershire Police, Wiltshire Police

CASE Police Services Social Media has redefined communications approaches across emergency services and public sector organisations. The digital social STUDY landscape creates an important communications channel for disseminating information and is increasingly being used as an alternative by the public to report crimes and incidents to the police. As a result, police forces are having to find ways to manage social media to provide an immediate response.

“We have seen a steep rise in The Client – Wiltshire Police the public trying to report crime over social media. This meant Formed in 1839, Wiltshire Police is the oldest force in the country. The Force that we needed to ensure that is responsible for policing the county of Wiltshire and Borough of Swindon in we had 24 hour monitoring South West England with more than 2000 police officers, police staff and due to the associated risks. For community support volunteers working round the clock. example, we have seen incidents where suicidal people have The Force is committed to making Wiltshire the safest county in the country tried to reach us through social and serves a population of 684,000 people across 1,346 square miles, media, and although this is rare, including the towns of Swindon, Salisbury and Chippenham. It is also home through effective management to Stonehenge World Heritage site and the M4 corridor. of our accounts we are able to respond.” The Background Head of Media at Wiltshire Police Helen Kennedy Wiltshire Police has seen a significant change in how the public look for updates from the police, rather than just referring to websites or more traditional channels of communication. This change in social media use has seen the Force move from managing a couple of social media accounts in 2012 to over 68 active accounts, including 24 Neighbourhood Policing Team Facebook pages, several senior staff Twitter accounts and community group Facebook pages, such as ‘Horsewatch’.

2000+ 27 police officers, staff Neighbourhood and community Policing Teams support volunteers 684,000 3 members of the Policing Area ‘Hubs’ public to serve

hour service to the 1,346 24 public, through square miles traditional ways and via area to police 68 social media accounts

01 “We needed a social media risk The Challenges management tool to help monitor multiple accounts with ease from • Instantly respond to the public as people increasingly use social media to one central place and to enable report crimes and incidents us to moderate and flag posts that say ‘help’, as well as carry • Find effective ways to manage police work and engage in the community out searches on keywords to within operating budget reductions monitor community tensions on social media.” • Maintain a bird’s eye view, while providing local Neighbourhood Policing Teams and community groups autonomy to manage their own Facebook pages Head of Media at Wiltshire Police Helen Kennedy • The requirement for an audit trail of all contacts, activity and posts across multiple accounts

• The need to monitor content and on-line chatter around possible events or ‘sensitive topics’ happening in the area

• Moderate content that is posted online and retain records centrally

The Solution

“CrowdControlHQ is the tool that enables us to literally ‘police’ what our staff are doing on our official accounts. However, mostly we find that CrowdControlHQ enables us to ensure we are consistent in our ‘customer care’ to the public by picking up messages and information when officers are not able to.”

The Wiltshire Police reviewed several systems, choosing CrowdControlHQ for its ability to provide access to all of the Force’s social media accounts from a single dashboard, rather than having to log in to several different sites.

Using CrowdControlHQ has allowed the Force’s use of social media to grow, enabling officers and staff to engage directly with the public whilst managing the reputational risk and delivering a meaningful service to the community.

Like all public sector organisations, Wiltshire Police is facing times of austerity and has to meet the changing nature of crime with reduced budgets, yet still provide a highly professional and visible service. CrowdControlHQ provided a solution that met the Force’s needs cost efficiently.

“As we have a huge amount of activity on the Force’s social media accounts, CrowdControlHQ means that our department can maintain an overview and assess the risk, manage the problems and respond where necessary to ensure the public are getting a quality service from Wiltshire Police. It has made monitoring all of our social media accounts simpler and less time consuming.

02 Wiltshire Police

Wiltshire Police has just entered its third year of using the CrowdControlHQ platform for its operations and is able to successfully manage its interactions with the public on social media, both reactively and proactively.

The social media accounts have been divided among Using CrowdControlHQ also allows the team to the members of the corporate communications monitor the online chatter and moderate the content team, including the press and media office, all of being posted. A recent illegal rave in Swindon meant whom have access to the CrowdControlHQ platform. that social media became particularly active - this Several members of the call centre control room also was a critical incident for Wiltshire Police. The Force use the system and assist with out of hours monitoring received hundreds of posts from the public, including of posts and replies, flagging any issues to the trolling, which it was able to monitor and delete any appropriate people. offensive posts. CrowdControlHQ enabled the Force to have a clear strategy to manage the posts and Everyone given access to the system is trained to use it delete the offensive ones, controlling a potentially and sent an electronic copy of the Force Media Guide. inflammatory situation. Each member of staff has responsibility for monitoring their accounts daily, with a ‘deputy’ to monitor it when the lead member of staff is unwell or on leave. A single dashboard enables the communications staff to manage multiple accounts, while an audit trail ensures responses are managed and recorded. In addition to this, content that is posted onto public pages can be deleted if it is deemed inappropriate, with a record remaining if required for audit in the future.

The Result

From 2012 the Force has grown from managing a couple of social media accounts to over 68 active accounts, including the Neighbourhood Policing Team Facebook pages, HQ Twitter accounts and community Facebook pages.

• Police time and resources saved through posting • Online content can be monitored, deleted and videos from CCTV and engaging public support for a record kept for future use information appeals • Audit trail of when people were last logged in and when • Increased local public engagement via the 24 accounts are inactive available for management Neighbourhood Policing Teams and Community groups’ Facebook pages • Platform allows 15 Corporate Communications officers to have access and oversee all social media • Ability to monitor online chatter and topics enables accounts, in addition to local teams accessing swift action if required to manage incident risk their own Facebook accounts

03 “We have seen how social Our portfolio is extensive media has become one of the most effective tools in terms of and includes: ‘customer’ care and how we communicate with the public. • Devon and Cornwall Police In recent months we have had • Dyfed Powys Police continued success in identifying wanted suspects by appealing • Gloucestershire Constabulary to the on-line community to • Greater Manchester Police assist. In one instance, the offender was at the police • Leicestershire Police station within thirty minutes of a social media post giving himself • Lincolnshire Police up. Although we cannot put a • Merseyside Police figure on it, this type of use of social networks will certainly • Northumbria Police contribute to saving thousands • Wiltshire Police of pounds worth of police time and resources.” • Cheshire Fire and Rescue Service

Head of Media at Wiltshire Police • Hampshire Fire and Rescue Service Helen Kennedy • Essex Fire and Rescue Service

• North West Ambulance Service Trust

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