Authorities finding Twitter useful

Many broadband users these days enjoy social networking sites such as Twitter, and it now appears that authorities are using these sites to help consumers to stay safe.

These days a huge number of broadband users go on social networking and blogging sites such as Facebook and Twitter, and many people use these sites for socialising and keeping in touch with friends and family. However, it seems that authorities are also finding a use for sites such as Twitter, with one authority using Twitter to provide subscribers with updates to help them to stay safe.

Gloucestershire Police is now using Twitter to help locals to avoid crime such as burglary, muggings, and scams by providing regular automatic updates to subscribers. The police force believes that by providing updates on Twitter it will be able to provide valuable information to a wider and more diverse group of people within the area to help them to avoid becoming the victims of crime.

An official from the force said: “Social media are a crucial part of modern communications and we want as many people as possible to have access to our alerts, crime prevention advice and updates. Twitter costs the Constabulary nothing but gives us access to a potentially unlimited new audience. If this free service can stop even a handful of people becoming the victims of crime or help us locate one missing person, it will have been worth joining.”

He added: “These days news comes to people in many different ways – not just through newspapers and TV. An appeal popping up on someone’s iPhone, as they sit on the train to work, could just trigger a vital memory which helps solve a crime.”

Source – Stroud News and Journal