Description
Law enforcement organizations are facing a tremendous problem with social media. On one hand, social media such as Facebook, My Space, and Twitter can be extremely useful for effective and efficient communication. On the other hand, Law Enforcement Executives are constantly facing situations in which employee misconduct is occurring through social media. Police Officers are accessing social media from their workstations and patrol cars during their shifts. Police Officers are posting information that is unbecoming for an officer as well as degrading and disrespectful to the profession. Police unions and police officer organizations such as the Fraternal Order of Police and the PBA are opposed to departmental policies that infringe on police officers’ constitutional rights. How do law enforcement organizations regulate the use of social media? Just about every major law enforcement organization has a Facebook account associated with the organization’s website. Therefore, should law enforcement organizations regulate individual officer’s social media activity?
As the policy manager for your law enforcement organization, please research the best practices related to the regulation of police officers’ use of social media and develop a department policy. This research should include interviews with your local law enforcement leaders to determine how they are addressing this issue. In addition, please read the “Social Media” study conducted by the International Association of Chiefs of Police; it can be found in the Reading & Study folder of Module/Week 4.
You must have at least 5 pages not including your title page.
Explanation & Answer
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Policy development
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POLICY DEVELOPMENT
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It is no secret that social media is taking over most aspects of human life. Communication
has greatly improved through these platforms, not forgetting interaction between people. Many
organizations are gradually adopting the use of social media in their companies for the efficiency
of activities. One of these fields that have not been left behind in the social media craze is the
law enforcement industry. Organizations, departments, and officers have slowly embraced
Facebook, Twitter, and MySpace, among others applying them in their professional and personal
lives. Professionally, social media helps law enforcement in improving communication,
enhancing their public relations strategies, not forgetting to gain new insight, and leads to
criminals. While this seems helpful, there is a need for law enforcement organizations to come
up with policies that will help in managing social media usage among personnel. Policies will
provide officers and everyone involved in law enforcement with a building block on how they
can manage their social media presence ethically and professionally.
Before detailing the regulations and policies that law enforcement organizations can
implement to control their social media usage, it would be essential to give a little background on
how much this field utilizes these platforms and the adverse effects that have been witnessed. As
detailed, most organizations utilize social media to benefit themselves. It improves
communication and, for some, even is used for advertising and promoting products. Law
enforcement organizations and departments open social media accounts to help improve their
interaction with the public, among other things. An interesting fact to note is that in the law
enforcement field, social media exists outside the office, and it comes in the form of personal
social media accounts that police officers hold. The current generation has grown on social
media, and therefore taking it away from them is a task close to impossible to accomplish.
POLICY DEVELOPMENT
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