Photo sharing puts GMP in focus

Police BMW on snowbound motorway

Greater Manchester Police is capturing the moment as its Flickr pages rack up more than a quarter of a million views.

Flickr is an image based social networking site similar to Facebook that allows users to share images with people around the world, join groups and leave comments.

The Force uploads images and videos to show the police’s day-to-day work, from major operations to local community events.  Photos of this year’s adverse weather conditions, high-profile drugs raids and the gas explosion in Irlam are among the most viewed.

With more than 1300 images now uploaded, GMP’s pages also include historic photographs dating back to the 19th century and an image of a group of Peelers, which is one of the earliest known images of policing in the Greater Manchester area.

Launched in November 2009, GMP’s photostream has now received 260,000 views.  To celebrate its first year on Flickr a selection of GMP’s best images have been published and are available by visiting www.gmp.police.uk/flickr.

Greater Manchester Police’s Director of Corporate Communications Amanda Coleman said: “We use Flickr and other social networking sites to provide an insight into how we work and to keep people updated on police activity.

“Social media is a great tool for us to talk and share information with the public and another opportunity for people to get in touch with us and tell us what you want us to be doing in your area.”