Twitter guidelines handed out to police ‘will certainly raise eyebrows’, says MSP

Twitter guidance dished out to community cops to stop online criticism of Police Scotland from spreading “will certainly raise eyebrows”.

That’s the view of North East Scotland MSP Alex Johnstone who said minimising the exposure of a genuine grievance “surely can’t be the answer”.

The Courier has obtained a comprehensive 25-page user guide which is issued to officers with official Police Scotland Twitter accounts to allow them to use the tool “effectively”.

Users are told to tweet “positive stories and results”, crime appeals, information such as road closures and to tweet for “reassurance” or to “quash rumours”.

Police are also given advice on how to minimise the spread of criticism of the Force during a section dealing with “content guidelines”.

The police were also unable to give The Courier details of how many complaints have been received regarding tweets made by its officers.

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