To Serve and to Tweet: An Examination of Police-Related Twitter Activity in Toronto

Abstract

Police departments across North America and Europe are using Twitter for many different reasons, one of the most important being public relations (i.e., image work). This article examines the relationship between Twitter use, police image work, and public engagement in the Canadian context. On the basis of 8,174 police-related tweets sent by the Toronto Police Service (TPS) and citizens, we advance the argument that despite its dialogical potential, the TPS use Twitter first and foremost as a means to legitimize the organization and that the organizational precepts of police image appear to preclude meaningful forms of engagement with citizens via Twitter.

Communicating with purpose: Image work, social media, and policing

“…As Brainard and Edlins (2015) note, this is in part because the police often fail to fully engage with, or even respond back to, a communicative public. Similarly, although only examining one police service, Kudla and Parnaby (2018) found that interaction with citizens via the Toronto Police Services (TPS) Twitter account was mainly used to solidify the legitimacy of TPS. Nevertheless, from the limited research that exists, these types of interactive posts appear to generate the most public interest (e.g., comments and likes) (Lieberman et al, 2013).…”

Improving Police Social Media Use Practices

“…for a law enforcement group indicated citizen memberships had a significant increase of 22 to 184% by each district. The style and demeanor of communication was reported as more than likely having a significant effect with respect to the data (see also Kudla & Parnaby, 2018). According to Brainard and McNutt, the findings indicated the departments' relationships with the public resembled an old public administration style of interaction.…”

“…Researchers such as Derrick-Mills (2011), Ching andHand (2011), and Kudla and Parnaby (2018) expect SM implementation of holding the possibility to fundamentally alter the interactions and relationships between the government and the populace; however, Kingsley (2012) does not agree. According to Kingsley, the government's use of SM has been viewed as merely a way to emphasize services the city offers, plus websites and SM continue to be an avenue for information distribution.…”

“…This is in keeping with Gallon's (2010) contention that SM users are more likely to adopt the role of listening and communication not unalike their behavior on Facebook. However, Kudla and Parnaby (2018) posited that an individual's behavior on Facebook is determined by the strategy applied, ergo the strategy applied by the police would potentially affect the community's response. Brainard and McNutt (2010) as well as Kula and Parnaby (2018) advocated the need for future studies regarding collaborative discourse and its usefulness.…”

Social media and policing: A review of recent research

“…Moreover, by emphasizing interactions between individuals and authorities, rather than the wider community, citizens remain detached and do not engage in collective action, outcomes lacking the consensual and deliberative qualities of more robust community‐oriented approaches (Terpstra, ). Finally, participation is often fictively democratic, with the police strictly controlling interactions and citizens being unable to substantively influence and steer decision‐making (Kudla & Parnaby, ; Schneider, ).…”