Rochdale officer tweets on the beat

PC John Byrne of the Rochdale North Neighbourhood Policing Team

Residents living in Rochdale North can now find out what police are doing in their area as it happens.

PC John Byrne of the Rochdale North Neighbourhood Policing Team will be using Twitter to communicate with residents in real time.

The social networking website, which allows users to tell people what they are doing in ‘tweets’ of 140 characters, is a fast and simple way for officers to pass on crime prevention messages to the public and give updates on police activity.

Residents can also use Twitter to let PC Byrne know about the issues that are important to them.

He said: “The beauty of Twitter is that it is free to use, and anyone with a computer or smartphone can access it. It also enables me to tell residents about issues that may affect them in real time. For example, if there has been a burglary I can let people know about it straight away so they can take steps to secure their homes.

“Neighbourhood policing is about officers having an ongoing conversation with the public, and one way of doing this is through Twitter. The fact that tweets are limited in length forces me to really think about what I want to say, and hopefully my followers on twitter will benefit from that.”

To follow PC Byrne on Twitter visit www.twitter.com/gmprochdalenrth or contact the Rochdale North NPT on 0161 856 9961 or at rochdalenorthpartnership@gmp.police.uk