August 22, 2011 3.17 pm This story is over 151 months old

Police Authority to tweet from Lincoln patrol

#TweetBeat: Two Police Authority members will join officers on the beat and tweet their experiences throughout the shifts.

Lincolnshire Police Authority will join police officers on duty next month, tweeting comments and observations during their shifts.

Two Police Authority authority members volunteered: Richard Davies will do his night shift in Lincoln or Gainsborough on September 2, and Rod Must will work with a traffic officer in Boston on September 12.

Lincolnshire Police Authority says it saw a positive reaction from the Twitter community in a similar move in June, so it came up with another way to use the social media outlet.

Both members of the authority champion the use of Twitter by the police and see it as a useful way to reach the community.

Davies said: “The use of new social media tools such as Twitter allows people to get a real sense of what’s going one in a manner that suits them, rather than long articles or television programmes.

“Tweeting gives short sharp bursts of information that reflect the varied nature of policing,” Davies added.

Must said: “We know that Twitter is a valuable way of communicating and engaging with the communities we serve. What we don’t know is what’s likely to happen on patrol because there’s no such thing as a routine day.”

If you are interested following the events on both days and would like to put across your views Twitter users can follow @LincsPA and use the hashtag #LincsTweetBeat.

Messages from the events will be published on their website www.linsolnshire.gov.uk the following day.

Source: Lincolnshire Police Authority