This in from the Police, in their own words. Ed
In a competition which pitted over five hundred police Twitter users against each other to find the most popular and engaging police tweeters, Portsmouth’s City Centre Unit have been judged as number one.
The competition was started by the National Police Improvement Agency’s Nick Keane (@NickKeane), who advises police forces on engagement through social media. When the list he collates of police twitter accounts reached 500, he was challenged to find the most engaging and present them with a small prize. The competition ran entirely on Twitter in July, with all users able to nominate their local team and give a reason why.
Mix humour with a serious message
Reasons for nominating @PompeyCCUPolice included:
“Leading the way in Portsmouth. Gentle down to earth humorous touch, but hard on the baddies”
“I nominate @pompeyccupolice for their outstanding use of Twitter – they mix humour with a serious message #ukcops”
Sergeant Rob Sutton and his team tweet various 140 character messages to their 2,900 followers, from crime prevention to things that are more light humoured, such as asking their followers to suggest names for their Transit van (the winner was, of course, Ni-Nah).
Day-to-day Policing
Day-to-day the team keep their followers up to date with what’s happening in the city centre, including promoting the lost child scheme, the Policing Through The Ages event, arrests of shoplifters and providing reassuring updates about police activity in the area.
Most importantly, the information isn’t a one way broadcast – the team answer questions and have conversations with their followers, which is the way Twitter is meant to be used.
UK Cops prize
Shortlisted teams for the UK Cops prize were put before a judging panel which included the national lead for social media in UK policing, Tayside Police’s Deputy Chief Constable Gordon Scobbie, and Police Review. Sgt Sutton’s team will receive a small prize kindly donated by Google.
PompeyCCUPolice were the first from Hampshire Constabulary to join Twitter, and the force now has 31 teams, units or individuals using the site. These are listed on the @Hantspolice account.
Read the full blog on who else was shortlisted, and why Pompeyccupolice won, in Nick Keane’s blog post
