Police Departments Keeping Public Informed On Twitter

Public safety officials are finding the use of sites to be not only speedy, but also a convenient way to distribute press releases, Amber alerts, road closings and suspect descriptions.

Bruce Frazier, public relations specialist for the Dalton Police Department in Dalton, Georgia, said the way in which Lakeland police utilized Twitter is exactly what he envisioned when his department started using the site a few weeks ago.

His department has a blog and Frazier said he learned the value of being able to keep the public updated quickly in October after a bombing at an area law firm.

“[The bombing occurred] across the street from an elementary school,” he recalled. “I was on the scene there pounding away on my PDA trying to send out press releases letting people know what was going on with the evacuation, what they needed to do to pick up their kids.”

“If we had been using something like Twitter, it would have been something quick that I could have been able to send something out from my PDA.”

via Source