The Greater Manchester Police decided to tweet every single call to its emergency (999) line in the 24-hour period ended at 5am October 15. Not only was it enlightening, but it caused a furor on Twitter, quickly becoming a trending topic as people rushed to follow the action.
The UK police force published more than 100 tweets per hour, a total of 3,205 tweets with details of incidents taking place in Greater Manchester, reporting everything from real emergencies like thefts to non-emergencies like a man asleep on a toilet in a theatre. Sometimes real life is funnier than parody, as in this tweet: “Call 384 report of man holding baby over bridge – police immediately attended and it was man carrying dog that doesn’t like bridges.”
Budget issues and a desire to get closer to its constituents prompted the experiment. The Greater Manchester Police is faced with having to make budget cuts of up to £7 million. Chief Constable Peter Fahy has opted to use social media to show how much work the police have to deal with and how cuts stretch resources, saying a lot of police work is not easily measured yet takes up a huge amount of time. The public clearly responded, generating lots of interest. But whether that will help the police budget remains to be seen.
UPDATE: //Still, the tweets generated enormous attention in a very short time. At the end of the 24 hours, the main account had accumulated more than 11,000 followers, and the #gmp24 hashtag was the #1 trending topic for a good portion of the day. Media attention was significant, too, with major outlets such as NPR covering the story.//
The police had to use three different Twitter accounts to get around Twitter’s API limits on account usage. You can follow Greater Manchester Police’s tweets at their three accounts via the hashtag #gmp24. And read the full story on The Next Web.
