Social media and border security: Twitter use by migration policing agencies

Walsh, James P.

doi:10.1080/10439463.2019.1666846

Cited by 24 publications

(21 citation statements)

References 62 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…These include sentiment analysis (Pak and Paroubek 2010 ; Kouloumpis et al 2011 ) and message polarity (Lima et al 2015 ). However, the reliance on such approaches has been criticized for missing the deeper context or meaning of communications (Walsh 2019 ). This is particularly likely to apply to novel datasets for which such techniques may not work well.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This is particularly likely to apply to novel datasets for which such techniques may not work well. Law-enforcement tweets may include information on various sorts of crime, the publicising of policing actions, as well as interactive content and suggested crime prevention advice (Walsh 2019 ). Moreover, when we consider the novelty and disruption to social settings that Covid-19 has engendered, such information can become inconsistent and highly variable.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For these reasons, our initial analytic strategy involved the use of a qualitative approach, in this case a thematic analysis (see, Strauss and Corbin 1998 ; Walsh 2019 ; Heverin and Zach 2010 ; Crump 2011 ; Lieberman et al 2013 ). This allowed us to immerse ourselves in the data and capture the richness of its content.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…While the general public's engagement with the platform has raised its popularity, public bodies and government agencies across the world commonly employ Twitter to communicate with the populace, via their own verified user accounts. Previous research (Crump 2011;Lee and McGovern 2013;Heverin and Zach 2010;Lieberman et al 2013;Walsh 2019) has shown that law enforcement agencies (LEAs) may use Twitter and other social media platforms for operational purposes (e.g. sharing alerts, warnings, upto-date and verified information); for building community trust, involving and educating citizens in and on the governance of crime, risk and insecurity; and for sharing successful enforcement stories.…”

Section: Twitter Law Enforcement and Disruptionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…sharing alerts, warnings, up-to-date and verified information); for building community trust, involving and educating citizens in and on the governance of crime, risk and insecurity; and for sharing successful enforcement stories. In relation to this, the use of Twitter by LEAs has been saluted for enhancing “police-citizen encounters and the foundational goals of community policing—fostering non-adversarial relations through public participation, decentralised decision-making, and two-way communications” (Walsh 2019 :3). The use of Twitter by LEAs has also been found to increase transparency, which can (to some extent) increase police legitimacy (Grimmelikhuijsen and Meijer 2015 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 4 more Smart Citations

“Show this thread”: policing, disruption and mobilisation through Twitter. An analysis of UK law enforcement tweeting practices during the Covid-19 pandemic

2020

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Crisis and disruption are often unpredictable and can create opportunities for crime. During such times, policing may also need to meet additional challenges to handle the disruption. The use of social media by officials can be essential for crisis mitigation and crime reduction. In this paper, we study the use of Twitter for crime mitigation and reduction by UK police (and associated) agencies in the early stages of the Covid-19 pandemic. Our findings suggest that whilst most of the tweets from our sample concerned issues that were not specifically about crime, especially during the first stages of the pandemic, there was a significant increase in tweets about fraud, cybercrime and domestic abuse. There was also an increase in retweeting activity as opposed to the creation of original messages. Moreover, in terms of the impact of tweets, as measured by the rate at which they are retweeted, followers were more likely to ‘spread the word’ when the tweet was content-rich (discussed a crime specific matter and contained media), and account holders were themselves more active on Twitter. Considering the changing world we live in, criminal opportunity is likely to evolve. To help mitigate this, policy makers and researchers should consider more systematic approaches to developing social media communication strategies for the purpose of crime mitigation and reduction during disruption and change more generally. We suggest a framework for so doing.

show abstract

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%