Police forces rule out Twitter for beat officers

Greater Manchester Police uses a mix of YouTube, Facebook and Twitter

Police forces around the UK are beginning to put social media strategies in place, but the use of Twitter for police officers on the street has been largely ruled out.

Greater Manchester Police (GMP) is one of the forces currently using Twitter to update the public on its operations, but it is the force's communications team that manages the feed.

"Twitter does not have a place for police officers on the street," said Chris Burrows, chairman of the GMP Federation.

Police on the beat have access to mobile phones and will soon have BlackBerry devices to check email, but Burrows confirmed that Twitter will remain restricted because police may get distracted from the job in hand.

The GMP Twitter feed currently has over 1,500 followers.

A spokesman for the GMP communications team said that the micro-blogging site is used mostly in fast moving, large scale operations carried out by the force.

"Twitter is then relevant as we expect a large number of arrests and it is high profile," he said.

The spokesman explained that the commander of the force contacts the communications team to suggest some of the Twitter updates.

One example of a recent operation that generated a large number of tweets was a clamp down on alcohol-related crime involving a large group of people.

The spokesman said that GMP had put together its own social media strategy, which contained a mix of YouTube, Facebook and Twitter updates.

While a large number of other forces have already pieced together their unique social media strategies, London's Metropolitan Police said that it is still forming a policy.

"At the moment we are trying to look at social media and how it can be relevant to the public," said a spokesman.