Social media engagement tactics in U.S. community policing: Potential privacy and security concerns
| Date | 01 December 2021 |
| DOI | 10.1177/0032258X20968588 |
| Published date | 01 December 2021 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
2021, Vol. 94(4) 556 –571
Article
Social media engagement
tactics in U.S. community
policing: Potential privacy
and security concerns
Alexander E Carter , Mariea Hoy
and Betsy Byrne DeSimone
University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN, USA
Abstract
Despite law enforcement’s best efforts to use social media as a means of community
policing, some engagement tactics may lead citizens to disclose personally identifiable
information (PII). We coded 200 tweets with the popular #9PMRoutine that tagged
@PascoSheriff (Florida) for participant PII. We found numerous postings of adults’ and
children’s PII that are problematic including pictures, health information and security-
related comments about their routines or vacations. Implications for law enforcement
to protect their communities are discussed as well as opportunities to continue to
cultivate their online relationships in a more secure forum. We also provide future
research directions.
Keywords
Community-oriented policing, social networking, privacy
Introduction
Community and law enforcement relations are important in American society. Michael
Brown’s death in August 2014 when white Ferguson, Missouri police officer Darren
Wilson shot the unarmed African-American man, however, brought community inter-
actions to the forefront as these relationships deteriorated (Chanin and Espinosa, 2016).
In response, law enforcement agencies (LEAs) looked to technological solutions ranging
Corresponding author:
Alexander E Carter, University of Tennessee, 1345 Circle Park Drive, 476 Communications Building,
Knoxville, TN 37996, USA.
Email: alexcarter@utk.edu
The Police Journal:
Theory, Practice and Principles
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DOI: 10.1177/0032258X20968588
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Carter et al. 557
from officer-worn body cameras to enhance transparency and accountability (Schneider,
2017) to more effective use of their digital communication strategy (Brainard, 2016;
Walsh and O’Conner, 2019). In particular, an effective presence on social media plat-
forms became necessary (Aiello, 2018; Brainard and Edlins, 2015; Huang et al., 2017) as
it ‘can enhance existing [community policing] efforts by bringing more residents into a
relationship with police, allowing for asynchronous communication’ (Brainard, 2016:
119). According to the International Association for Chiefs of Police (IACP), 81.1%of
agencies used social media in 2010 with 40.6%using it for community outreach/citizen
engagement. By Fall 2015, that number had climbed to 96.4%using social media with
83.4%reporting that they used it for community outreach/citizen engagement (IACP,
2010, 2015). Most early efforts focused on using social media to aid in investigations and
provide important notifications or positive stories to the public and med ia (Hanson,
2011) rather than tapping into social media’s power of engagement and relationship
development. Consequently, many LEAs were not engaging in community building as
effectively as they could have been (Huang et al., 2017). As the International Association
of Chiefs of Police (IACP, n.d.) notes in its social media for law enforcement Twitter
guidance: ‘Engagement is your goal. Meaningful interaction matters, as it builds loyalty
and trust. Twitter is the ideal platform for engagement’.
As a means of prompting consumer engagement, advertisers/brands use a variety of
tactics such as Twitter chats, quizzes, or asking questions, some of which include posting
pictures in response, and often stimulated by the opportunity to win prizes (Fox and Hoy,
2019). These efforts are intended to develop relationships between the sponsor account
and its followers. LEAs are turning to such marketing tactics to generate engagement as
part of their community policing efforts.
These engagement tactics, however, may result in participants sh aring personally
identifiable information (PII) about themselves and others, including children. Emerging
research that looks at mothers posting information about their children in similar scenar-
ios suggests that this behavior may put their children’s privacy, and potentially safety,
at-risk (Fox and Hoy, 2019). Similarly, we wondered if the same behavior might be
happening as citizens engaged with police social media accounts. Specifically, this study
explores the extent to which Twit ter users may be disclosing PII o r other sensitive
information in response to a law enforcement social media engagement tactic and the
resulting potential privacy and safety concerns. To investigate this issue, we conducted a
content analysis of 200 tweets taken from one day each in January, June and October
2019 involving a popular engagement tactic, the #9PMRoutine, instituted by the Pasco
County (Florida) Sheriff’s Office (Pasco County) but also adopted by many LEAs across
the United States.
We begin with Pasco County’s background and the development, use of, and suc-
cesses with social media as a community policing tool based on an interview with its
Assistant Executive Director, Chase Daniels (2019). Then we provide a literature review
of community policing and social media use and online privacy as it relates to our study.
Next, we describe our content analysis method, including the use of the SalesForce social
listening tool, Social Studio. Based on our results we offer guidance for law enforcement
organizations’ social media strategists and administrators. We conclude with directions
for future research.
2The Police Journal: Theory, Practice and Principles XX(X)
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