#gmp24 – live tweeting a police force’s work

Visit: http://amandacomms1.wordpress.com/2010/10/15/how-gmp24-happened/

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Amanda Coleman advises on communications for Greater Manchester Police and writes about a project she worked on to live-tweet the activity of the force for 24 hours, to provide an insight into the reality of daily life in the area and the diversity of activities undertaken by the Police:

The challenge was to find a way to show people the wide range of issues the police are called to deal with.  There were many possibilities – for example, to release statistics and information about crime and incidents over a 24 hour period, or to allow a TV crew (if they wanted to) to spend 24 hours with a police team. But none of them seemed to hit the mark.

In a world where the Big Society is a hot topic, hyperlocal sites are growing and open data is on the minds of all public bodies there needed to be another answer. The key had to be in social media, and it was – in Twitter.

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