Before social media became popular, police work was carried out as usual. Police forces are known to adopt modern technology rather quickly to help in criminal investigations and to prevent crimes from taking place in the first place. Now with the advent of social media so rampantly, the police forces around the world have joined in to officially have their own social media public relations sources.
If a police station of a particular area in a city will not start its own Facebook page, an alternative unofficial page will be opened by some other online users wanting to start a network. However, this only places for places where internet access is in high numbers and the netizens of the area are very active in their own cities performances.
A recent research report based on 13 European countries police forces that were surveyed shows that social media presence for the police proves better for their relationships with the public. The research was conducted by the group called Composite (Comparative police studies in the EU).
The important part of the research’s conclusion states that it is good for the police forces to engage with the public, not necessarily to follow on a lead, but to work on their interaction and understanding with the public to improve their sense of security.
In many cities in Pakistan, the sense of security is rather always dull with volatile situations taking over at any unpredictable moment, but it will be rather good to see official presence of the law enforcement agencies on Facebook and Twitter to listen to what the public has to say about the security measures.