In an effort to show all that “modern policing” does, the Greater Manchester Police force is publishing details of every call that it receives today on Twitter.
We are in the future. This is web 3.0. Information is so now freely available and easily distributed that it is now possible for one of the largest police forces in the United Kingdom to publish details of each call that it receives. Chief Constable Peter Fahy of the Greater Manchester Police force is using the promotion to show the public all that “modern policing” entails. It’s not all bang bang and bobbies chasing robbers; police now deal with a lot of social problems, domestic disputes and possible health issues. Due to the technical limitations of Twitter, the force is Tweeting over three accounts: @gmp24_1, @gmp24_2, @gmp24_3. The 24 Tweet-fest began at 5am Manchester time this morning.
“Policing is often seen in very simple terms, with cops chasing robbers and locking them up,” said Chief Constable Peter Fahy. “However the reality is that this accounts for only part of the work they have to deal with.”
The promotion is a part of a plea from Fahy to change the way Manhester funds its social services. From his point of view, the police often begin the process of helping people and he thinks that public funding for social services should be split amongst all agencies.
“We see time and again the same families, the same areas and the same individuals causing the same problems and these people are causing a considerable drain to the public purse,” Fahy said.
“Instead of the public sector organisations having separate pots of money we could spend it more efficiently it were one big pot. This could be achieved by working together more effectively, by joining up and sharing the responsibility of the issues that we are all dealing with.”
Politics aside, it’s just generally funny to see some of the calls that the police are handling today. One of my favorites so far are:
call 1069 bag of sand obstructing traffic in Oldham
I wonder if that is related to the previous call:
call 1068 bag stolen in street in Oldham
Quick! Someone is stealing bags of sand and putting them in the streeet! Call the cops!
Source: Greater Manchester Police
