Police in Perth say they are keen to use social networking sites to spread their message across the community.
Officers in western division have already used Facebook and Twitter for high-profile events such as T in the Park and now more are joining from within various departments at HQ in Barrack Street, Perth, and beyond.
Detective Inspector Caroline Lindsay, of CID, told The Courier she has been tweeting for four months and finds it useful. She tweets as @detinspperth.
”I tweet about a lot of crimes across the division,” she said. ”Our road policing unit are on Facebook and we have officers such as Ian Martin who began the Perth City Cops site.
”There are quite a number of other police staff who use Twitter now as well.”
She continued: ”We are trying to push social networking sites like Twitter in the force.”
Deputy Chief Constable Gordon Scobie is the national lead for social networking in Tayside Police.
He said: ”It’s well-used and we are understanding the benefits of it. It can prioritise crimes by getting the message out there and highlights the crimes being committed and that information can be used to contact us or Crimestoppers.”
Ms Lindsay said that as well as the community ”following” police messages, Twitter can also be useful for people and police forces in other areas.
”Lately, I have seen how people can pick on a topic,” she added. ”I have been doing some work with Abertay University in Dundee piloting self-administered interviews and tweeted about that. Someone then picked up on that and re-tweeted, so it generates interest.”
Chief Superintendent Roddy Ross, of western division, is also keen to use social networking sites.
”Some of our staff are getting used to Twitter’s values and its limitations,” he said. ”We used a similar scheme during the G8 conference at Gleneagles but the main benefit of Twitter is that messages posted are instant.”You can find Tayside Police on Facebook at www.facebook.com/TaysidePolicePhoto PA