POLICE in the Isle of Man are aiming to improve their communication with the general public in the Island by using social networking sites.

Facebook and Twitter will be used to communicate with the press and public for a trial period from now until the end of June.

Inspector Derek Flint explained: "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 information should start to appear on it over the coming weeks."

Inspector Flint said it was necessary to run the social networking sites for a trial period to ensure it was sustainable.

He continued: "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!"

To see the Isle of Man Constabulary Media page on Facebook click here. To follow the police on twitter click here. 

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