The Cops Are On Twitter. But That's A Good Thing

|

handcuffs.jpgWhat's the most tech-savvy city government? San Jose? New York City? How about Scottsdale, Arizona? That's where the police department is using Twitter to send updates to the public, like when a road is closed or when police are at a crime scene in your neighborhood.

The Scottsdale police department has its own Twitter account, and even though it only has a paltry 174 followers as of this morning, the department seems to be dilligently updating, with messages like "Hayden Road, from Camelback to Ind. School, is closed for a fatal traffic collision," or like "Watch out for city crews cleaning up debris along Pima and Scottsdale roads in the northern parts of the city."

Kudos to the Scottsdale P.D. for trying out new communications tech. But is Twitter ready to be a real-time, mainstream connection between local government and residents? Probably not exclusively: It's not always reliable; it costs money to receive text messages; there's no security guarantee; and you can't easily target messages to groups of people, either by geography or demographics. But we think short text message updates are a fine complement to other government communications. (Indeed, the FCC is working on a SMS-based alert system, due in 2010.)

In the meantime, other potential Twitter applications: The California Department of Transportation could use Twitter to update us on traffic jams. Or the MTA could use it to send out subway updates in New York.

See Also:
Who Are The 9 People In Mark Zuckerberg's Inner Twitter Circle?
Fake Exxon Twitter Account Fools Real Web Analyst
iPhone + Twitter + Sedatives = Not A Great Idea, Really



< Prev. Story
Next Story >

9 Comments

Mike said:
Good story, I see the Sonoma County Sheriff is as well. http://twitter.com/sonomasheriff

Ari Herzog (URL) said:
The LA Fire Department has used Twitter much longer: @LAFD

maureen van maanen said:

Amsterdam Fire Department has been doing this as well on their account @brandadam.

See; http://twitter.com/BrandAdam

This is a space where copying each other is easy, and features take a few weeks to develop. What does that mean? It means that with all the free players in this space, noone will get away with charging for anything, since there are zero switching costs.
kuaför malzemeleri 2009 saç modelleri There is no third step. See the screen shot below of a post on AVC — with bit.ly showing information about where Fred’s post got shared and how often.
ucuz LCD Televizyon There is no third step. See the screen shot below of a post on AVC — with bit.ly showing information about where Fred’s post got shared and how often. en ucuz plazma televizyon There is no third step. See the screen shot below of a post on AVC — with bit.ly showing information about where Fred’s post got shared and how often.There is no third step. See the screen shot below of a post on AVC — with bit.ly showing information about where Fred’s post got shared and how often.
youtube There is no third step. See the screen shot below of a post on AVC — with bit.ly showing information about where Fred’s post got shared and how often.There is no third step. See the screen shot below of a post on AVC — with bit.ly showing information about where Fred’s post got shared and how often.There is no third step. See the screen shot below of a post on AVC — with bit.ly showing information about where Fred’s post got shared and how often. video izle berber ve kuaför There is no third step. See the screen shot below of a post on AVC — with bit.ly showing information about where Fred’s post got shared and how often.There is no third step. See the screen shot below of a post on AVC — with bit.ly showing information about where Fred’s post got shared and how often. türk bayrağı

orinda (URL) said:
The Cops Are On Twitter. But That's A Good Thing642-691Did you see the way she touches him? So affectionate. That's bullshit.

The Cops Are On Twitter. But That's A Good Thing 毒死蜱 It's fine once you get used to it. You'll be fine. Be quiet.

devyn (URL) said:
640-802 The Cops Are On Twitter. But That's A Good Thing I want to go back to school What for? You already have a Ph D. Goes without saying.

normand (URL) said:
I guess so. I forgot what I was gonna say. 640-802 / 642-812 / 70-431 / 642-415 / 646-204 / 642-811

John Smith said:
The premier seller of air jordans and buy jordans and information on acne.

Join the discussion