Bit of a storm on here today.

It’s clear that some police Twitter accounts have progress to make in terms of how they tweet about incidents, realising that they’re sharing a picture or some details of what could be the worst day in someone else’s life.

However..

Please bear in mind that the Baron-Townsend Matrix, though undoubtedly good, is:
(a) two people’s suggestion / perspective
(b) written with medical professionals and associated ethics in mind, its application to other contexts was not discussed in the article

The police occupy a strange place that is not the same as the medical profession. Yes we have a duty around confidentiality, but we have a role that gives us powers and the right to force, requiring collective consent of the community

In the exercise of these powers and our wider role we have much-publicised issues around trust, legitimacy, transparency. There is a massive role for social media in building / maintaining a relationship with the public by showing what we do.

This doesn’t excuse breaching confidentiality in the slightest, but it does mean that police tweeting can’t be viewed through the same lens as medical tweeting.

The specifics of each case are different, the impact of each case is different. Much of what we do or attend is in the public domain, sometimes even before police social media references it.

Some cops actually wish forces were more proactive in their approach to social media, especially when it comes to putting their side of the story / facts out following edited / negative / biased social media coverage from other sources.

I make no comment on specific posts, there is much I don’t agree with. All I’d ask if that we don’t see a #Team999 pile on to police tweets, applying a value set that doesn’t directly apply. Let’s deal with this constructively please.

If anyone feels passionately enough to research and publish something akin to the B-T Matrix taking into full account the context of policing, that’d be ace!