@Houstonpolice: an exploratory case of Twitter during Hurricane Harvey

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the Houston Police Department (HPD)’s public engagement efforts using Twitter during Hurricane Harvey, which was a large-scale urban crisis event. Design/methodology/approach This study harvested a corpus of over 13,000 tweets using Twitter’s streaming API, across three phases of the Hurricane Harvey event: preparedness, response and recovery. Both text and social network analysis (SNA) techniques were employed including word clouds, n-gram analysis and eigenvector centrality to analyze data. Findings Findings indicate that departmental tweets coalesced around topics of protocol, reassurance and community resilience. Twitter accounts of governmental agencies, such as regional police departments, local fire departments, municipal offices, and the personal accounts of city’s police and fire chiefs were the most influential actors during the period under review, and Twitter was leveraged as de facto a 9-1-1 dispatch. Practical implications Emergency management agencies should consider adopting a three-phase strategy to improve communication and narrowcast specific types of information corresponding to relevant periods of a crisis episode. Originality/value Previous studies on police agencies and social media have largely overlooked discrete periods, or phases, in crisis events. To address this gap, the current study leveraged text and SNA to investigate Twitter communications between HPD and the public. This analysis advances understanding of information flows on law enforcement social media networks during crisis and emergency events.

Policing in pandemics: A systematic review and best practices for police response to COVID-19

“… Reicher and Stott [ 16 ] COVID-19 Considers the impact of the COVID-19 outbreak on collective disorder. Yang and Stewart [ 17 ] Hurricane Studies police use of the social media platform, Twitter, by the Houston Police Department during Hurricane Harvey and recommends a three-phase strategy for emergency responders that publicly communicates their preparedness, response and recovery efforts. …”

“…In many instances, these accounts were meant to reply to citizen requests, tackle misinformation, and push correct information forward [ 12 ]. Yang and Stewart [ 17 ]; however, found that Twitter use by police departments, and other first responders, largely focused on protocol, reassurance and community resilience. This discrepancy is echoed by Hughes, St. Denis, Palen, and Anderson [ 15 ] who stress that online communication practices differ across departments and across media types and no standardised procedures are available.…”

“…The recommendation for flexibility is echoed in grey literature designed specifically for police departments and crisis communication [ 12 ]. Yang and Stewart [ 17 ] have further recommended that departments design communication strategies in different phases of the crisis – preparation, response phase, and recovery – to adequately communicate with affected citizens based on their needs. These sources suggest that official police accounts use transparency and accountability in these times to maintain public trust in the police [ 15 ] and establish ‘two-way, trust-based’ communication with the public to ensure a cooperative response to the emergency [ 45 ].…”

Health information communication during a pandemic crisis: analysis of CDC Facebook Page during COVID-19

“…Another stream of research is performed to investigate the use of social media by the authorities and officials during crisis and emergency, particularly examining social media contents based on the stages of crisis (e.g. Yang and Stewart, 2019; Xu, 2020). Yang and Stewart (2019) investigated the Houston Police Department's public engagement using Twitter during Hurricane Harvey crisis and revealed that governmental agencies' accounts take an influential role during emergencies.…”

“…Yang and Stewart, 2019; Xu, 2020). Yang and Stewart (2019) investigated the Houston Police Department's public engagement using Twitter during Hurricane Harvey crisis and revealed that governmental agencies' accounts take an influential role during emergencies. Their investigation was done across three phases of the disaster, including preparedness, response, and recovery.…”