Does Police Use of Twitter Align With and Enhance Community Policing Objectives? An Analysis of the New York City Police Department’s Twitter Activity

• Author: Amanda L. Thomas,David N. Hatten,Nathan T. Connealy
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/10986111211043875
• Published date: 01 December 2022
• Date: 01 December 2022
• Subject Matter: Articles

Article

Does Police Use of

Twitter Align With and

Enhance Community

Policing Objectives?

An Analysis of the

New York City Police

Department’s Twitter

Activity

Amanda L. Thomas

1

,

David N. Hatten

1

, and

Nathan T. Connealy

2

Abstract

Prior research has examined how social media has been integrated into law enforce-

ment operations; however, this research has not fully explored the potential for this

technology to function as an effective community policing strategy. Through the

creation of a uniquely large dataset constructed with individual “tweets,” the current

study analyzed Twitter use by the New York City Police Department (NYPD) in

2016. Using a mixed-methods approach, this research identified linkages between

social media and community policing, the level of adherence to community policing

objectives, the potential for heterogeneity in usage across different NYPD patrol

boroughs, and the degree of public engagement. Our findings suggest Twitter is

inimitably positioned to contribute to each aspect of community policing, although

its effectiveness varied across dimension typology. Second, heterogeneity was also

1

John Jay College of Criminal Justice, New York, New York, United States

2

Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice, University of Tampa, Tampa, Florida, United States

Corresponding Author:

Amanda L. Thomas, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, 524 W 59th St., Haaren Hall, Rm. 631, NewYork,

NY 10019, United States.

Email: amthomas@jjay.cuny.edu

Police Quarterly

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DOI: 10.1177/10986111211043875

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2022, Vol. 25(4) 443–469

444 Police Quarterly 25(4)

observed across patrol boroughs, indicating both the objectives and application of

social media varies within the agency. Lastly, engagement metrics reveal a few notable

trends concerning police-community relations.

Keywords

social media, Twitter, community-oriented policing (COP), NYPD, technology

Community policing initiatives have often yielded mixed results as researchers

have classified it as “too amorphous a concept to submit to empirical eval-

uation” (Mastrofski, 2006, p. 45). Community policing has also been viewed

as a less effective reform agenda because it requires two substantial structural

and programmatic changes (Mastrofski, 2006), which directly oppose the para-

military organizational structure commonly associated with police agencies (i.e.,

decentralization and broadening police functions). Despite the difficulties,

advocates of community policing remain resolute of its potential to improve

police-community relations and reduce crime (Mastrofski, 2006). Thus, the field

continues to encourage practitioners, researchers, and other stakeholders

to develop an operational model of community policing that simultaneously

produces the proposed benefits and stands up to empirical testing.

One of the promises of community policing is that it will have a positive

impact on civic engagement by “involving the public in some way in efforts to

enhance community safety” (Skogan, 2006, p. 29). The goal of increased civic

engagement is to create a relationship that allows the police and members of

the community to become “co-producers” of safety (Skogan, 2006, p. 29).

Developing civic engagement between police and the community is more than

increasing “the amount of informal “face time” between police and residents”

(Skogan, 2006, p. 29) though; it also requires a significant amount of decentral-

ization to occur. This philosophical change often makes community policing

difficult to faithfully implement across law enforcement agencies. To that end,

community policing is comprised of several strategies including partnerships,

problem-solving, and structure, but it is also a philosophy that requires organi-

zational transformation and systemized cohesiveness across involved entities.

Recently, researchers have begun to explore how the use of social media “is

changing the landscape of public agencies and bureaucracies around the world”

(Criado et al., 2013, p. 319). In fact, the President’s 21st century policing task

force (2015) proposed the use of social media as a tool to engage communities.

Contemporary research suggests that social media outlets have now facilitated a