Digitale Polizeiarbeit

Do organizational differences matter for the use of social media by public organizations? A computational analysis of the way the German police use Twitter for external communication

“…By and large, the literature distinguishes five main usages for social media by the German police (Bayerl & Rüdiger, 2017; Houy et al, 2019): (1) to spread information to citizens; (2) to collect information from citizens and enlist them in ongoing investigations; (3) to improve the police's image and the publics' trust; (4) to find new recruits and promote the police as a work place; and (5) sharing police‐internal communication. One study suggests that the German police mainly focus on the first and the fourth of these functions and most departments were found to prefer Facebook or Twitter for their social media activities (Bayerl & Rüdiger, 2017).…”

“…Finally, social media activities by German police happen in the shadow of federal legal regulations regarding questions of data privacy and the legal norm to investigate every potential crime (including crimes arising from inappropriate behavior on social media, e.g., in replies to police tweets) (Bayerl & Rüdiger, 2017; Houy et al, 2019; Ingold, 2017). While the federal level has limited legal competencies to regulate the police as such, federal laws that regulate, for example, citizens' rights regarding data privacy effect police entities and their online communication.…”

“…While Twitter has become more common in day‐to‐day police work, there are still gaps in our knowledge of how the police use Twitter (Walsh & O'Connor, 2019; Williams et al, 2018). Especially the German police seem to be somewhat understudied, and our analysis aims to provide a first comprehensive exploratory insight into this matter (Bayerl & Rüdiger, 2017; Houy et al, 2019).…”

“…Moreover, their top‐down strategy focusing on departmental Twitter accounts as well as their stronger hierarchical and legal limitations make them particularly challenged in their use of social media (Bayerl & Rüdiger, 2017; Ingold, 2017). Finally, studies have not presented a comprehensive overview over Twitter activities of the German police, but rather focused on the historical development, legal background, specific incidents, or organizational rationales (Akkaya et al, 2019; Bayerl & Rüdiger, 2017; Houy et al, 2019; Ingold, 2017).…”