Tweets provide insight into policework

The 24-hour Twitter experiment by Greater Manchester Police has come to an end, after being variously described as ‘a PR success,’ ‘fascinating,’ or ‘a waste of money’.

Between 5.00am yesterday and 5.00am today, every incident the police were called to was uploaded on their Twitter. A total of 3,205 tweets were made, ranging from the bizarre: “report of man holding baby over bridge - police immediately attended and it was man carrying dog that doesn’t like bridges,” or: "attempted theft of a caravan, could have happened anytime in the past two weeks, Rochdale," to the mundane: “car left garage in Reddish without paying for petrol,” to the worrisome: “abandoned 999 call. 15th call from same mobile,” to the serious: “report of rape,” “threats to kill in Oldham.”

The feed was also full of reports of children playing with phones and abusive or nuisance calls, such as the confused man who could not work his television or the man who was disorientated after waking up in the evening.

The aim was to show how policework is not all ‘cops and robbers,’ but involves delicate social work, such as the myriad of reports of missing children and domestic arguments.

Chief Constable Peter Fahy said: “The reaction we have received proves that the public perception of modern day policing was removed from the reality that my officers face.

"We have tried to give a serious message about transparency and how we get that out to the public.

"As well as serious crimes, we deal with many social issues and other incidents that the public are quite surprised about.

"Through this experience we get a better picture that crime is connected to our social issues such as drug use and relationship breakdowns.

"Many of the things we deal with are about the same people: missing people who have been missing 60 or 70 times before or repeat offenders putting demands on public services."

It also highlighted how many incidents are reported and how stretched the police service are, in the face of 25% budget cuts. “I applaud the decision to open up your world to us, it was fascinating, and they did more in the last five minutes than I thought they would in a whole day,” one man commented.

Another person said: “What comes across from these tweets is how much the police are involved in the community and how much they are relied upon.”

The tweets have also showed how officers need to identify links between the incidents they are currently dealing with and earlier crimes, often in a different area. At about 11.50pm on Thursday 14 October 2010, a post office on Burnley Lane in Chadderton was ram-raided and cash was stolen.

Later, at about 2.20am on Friday 15 October 2010, a report was made of a car driving dangerously in Blackley. The back of the car, a Volkswagen Toureg, was badly damaged. The vehicle was abandoned on Brockford Drive. A link with the earlier ram raid is now being investigated.

Over the 24-hour period, officers made 341 arrests, with 126 remaining in custody, and their twitter went from 3,000 followers to over 17,000. The full list of tweets can be seen at www.gmp.police.uk