North Yorkshire Police to Reduce Social Media Accounts

The force will reduce the number of social media accounts it uses and insists officers have not been "banned" from posting.

A number of twitter and Facebook accounts used by individual officers and policing teams are being withdrawn as the North Yorkshire force focuses it's social media presence on a smaller number of accounts which it says will be better monitored and more responsive.

The force say

"We are doing this in line with recommendations from the National Police Chief’s Council (NPCC) on the management of police social media accounts which are based on public feedback and the National Policing Digital Strategy.

Behind the changes that we are making is the absolute imperative to protect our communities and our officers, staff and volunteers."

Behind the changes is an expected change to crime reporting rules, which would mean police forces would have to identify crimes reported via social platforms.

North Yorkshire Police say:

"Despite stating that our social media accounts are not currently to be used for reporting crime, we carry the risk that crime and intelligence shared on our official accounts, or accounts that look like official police accounts, could be missed.

Alongside the NPCC recommendations there is a need for us to ensure North Yorkshire Police and all other police forces are in a position to identify any crimes reported on social media in the near future.

Currently, our officers, staff and volunteers are at risk of missing such reports if they are not able to monitor their North Yorkshire Police social media accounts on a daily basis.

This could also place vulnerable members of the public at risk should they reach out via a North Yorkshire Police social media accounts and their concerns not be seen for several days or weeks."

The force hope that by having fewer accounts, central teams will be able to monitor the accounts more closely and respond more quickly to posts and comments. They say:

"The changes we are putting in place will see fewer North Yorkshire Police social media accounts in order to make it easier for our communities to find the latest updates from the force and what is happening in their area.

This will also enable us to respond to the issues that matter to our communities more quickly and effectively.

Currently, we are reducing our accounts which cover geographic areas and moving to eight district accounts.

They will continue to be managed by our local teams. Further down the timeline, we will be changing our approach to individual and specialist team accounts and this will be communicated moving forward."

The changes will see the removal of a number of accounts which have seen local officers post material directly relevant to their local area. The force say this content will continue to be available vis the new accounts and that officers have not been banned from posting.

"Our many officers, staff and teams who already post and share social media content have not been banned from posting. We know that the public enjoy the insight into policing that these provide.

We will be asking them to share that engaging, interesting and personal content across our force wide and district accounts and some have already started doing this.

If they wish to, they will be able to include their name so the public still know who is the ‘voice’ behind the post.

By providing officers with access to our official accounts their ‘voices’ will be able to reach a larger audience.

These changes will improve the service we provide to our communities through social media, enabling them to receive the North Yorkshire Police content they need through fewer channels.

This is not a unique approach for North Yorkshire Police – other forces are already following this approach and have condensed their accounts resulting in an improvement in public satisfaction and feedback."

Details about the new accounts can be found at https://northyorkshire.police.uk/do-it-online/social-media-nyp/