September 8, 2011 3.29 pm This story is over 149 months old

Twitter takes off for Police Authority

Police tweets: Lincolnshire Police Authority has more Twitter followers than any other authority North of London.

John Horton, the man behind Lincolnshire Police Authority’s Twitter account

Lincolnshire Police Authority has more Twitter followers than any other authority North of London.

Second only to Surrey Police Authority, Lincolnshire leads the way with innovative ideas of community engagement, using Twitter to involve the public in police activity.

Engagement and Communications Officer at Lincolnshire PA, John Horton, confessed that Surrey beat them to embracing Twitter but Lincolnshire are gaining momentum.

Horton said: “We’re slowly growing in numbers and I’m delighted that so many or our Twitterati are interested in the authority’s work.”

Only 421 followers behind Surrey who have 1,462, Lincolnshire have seen a recent spike in numbers now with 1,041 followers, after trying new ways of using Twitter.

New project TweetBeat involves officers Tweeting comments throughout their local patrols and also  answering questions from the public via the social media website.

Authority member, Richard Davies, recently publicised a night shift in Lincoln through Twitter and sees it as an opportunity for the public to experience the highs and lows of policing.

“Social media enables us to talk to members of the community in a direct way and this seems to have started something of a revival of interest in all matters policing,” said Davies.

The next events will be looking at traffic policing in Boston on September 12 and a shift with a Police Community Support Officer in Skegness on September 26.

To follow the events and also Tweet your opinions and questions you can join Twitter for free and follow @LincsPA using the hashtag #LincsTweetBeat.