The Isle of Man Police are trialling Facebook and Twitter to see if it will improve their communication with the press and public alike.
Inspector Derek Flint explained;
‘This is something a little different to what we have running in the Northern Neighbourhood. Rather than an interactive page, these ones will purely be a feed of information, especially for those short, timely messages we need to get out quickly. We have set it up so that Facebook is the main link, and Twitter also picks up the messages, making them easily available to users of mobile devices. At the moment we are briefing the staff who will be using the pages, and more and more information should start to appear on it over the coming weeks ‘
‘We need to find out if this is sustainable for ourselves, and whether people find it useful, so we will run until the end of June, and then carry out a review. As well as how manageable we have found it to operate, the views of the public and the press will be really important to find out if there is an appetite for this sort of information feed here on the Island. ‘
‘It is important for people to remember this isn’t a method to report crimes or incidents to us. For that they will have to still call into police stations, or use the telephone to speak to us. But who knows what we might be doing in years to come!’
You can find the links on Facebook at ‘Isle of Man Constabulary Media Page’, and on Twitter at @iompolice.
Ends
Wednesday 25th, May 2011 02:42pm.
