The possibilities of the digital revolution for the police
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The possibilities of the digital revolution for the police --Libel 11 jul 2011 10:09 (UTC)
Introduction
The Dutch Police has a number of guiding documents. These are the vision statement "Police in Development" (2005), the ICT-strategy “Appealing Prospect” (2006) and the “Employers Vision” (2008). In 2008 a first step was made to establish an Information Strategy for the Dutch Police for the years 2010 to 2012. In this Information Strategy the internet is appointed as a strategic resource and platform. The ultimate goal of the Information Strategy is to contribute to a safer society. Underlying this is a professional, efficient and effective process for both the real and virtual community. By making use of intelligence, knowledge, information and data each of the groups within the community helps in improving safety.
The Information Strategy has defined seven principles. These principles provide context and help to focus and make the right choices. Information is there to share. By sharing information you get more value. That is the power of information. We should all feel the need to share information. Internet is strategically. Internet is for the Dutch Police a strategic source and platform. In everything we do this must be included. Information creates value. All requests to be included in the information management are assessed for whether they are going to create value, that is, contribute to safety on the streets, in our image and professionalism. If it does not create value, we should not do it. All information should focus on use. We do not capture any more information that is not used. Police work is very diverse and collaboration is becoming increasingly complex. Business rules are changing. This means that information should be arranged flexibly so easily changes or new requirements can be met. Information must be accurate, real-time and context relevant. As a government organization, we can only execute our function if we are compliant and fully transparent. The government expects that of us, but also the citizens.
Politie 2.0
To find out what the internet means for the police a community has been started on the internet. It is called Politie 2.0 (www.politie20.nl). This community is designed to share knowledge about the police, intelligence and complex ICT file. "We know more than I" is the motto under which everyone participates in this network. We are all carriers of a part of the knowledge and nobody has the all-encompassing knowledge. The community is an open platform on the internet, to explore and push the boundaries of the police on the internet.
Transformations in society
In history there have always been moments of transition. There will be a break with former times; a transformation. And with a transformation always comes a paradigm shift. A change from one way of thinking to another. It just does not happen, but is driven by agents of change. After that the world is adapting to the changes and is organizing it self along new lines.
The industrial revolution is a transformation which was caused by the rapid development of new techniques and their application. This revolution happened in different phases. The upcoming of iron founding and steam power at the end of the 18th and the beginning of the 19th century led to a switch from manual to mechanical manufacturing of goods. The major change happened in the textile sector. Particularly the textile industry has been the leading sector of the industrial revolution. The invention of the steam train in 1824 made the transport of goods easier and speeded up the industrialization. The coming of steal, electricity, turbines, internal combustion engine and oil characterize the second industrial revolution. Communication and digitalization characterize the third industrial revolution. New ways of communication that are upcoming from the end of the 19th century and the introduction of the computer in the middle of the 20th century make it possible to seek information almost everywhere in the world. Globalization is making its entrance.
Every transition causes changes. The industrialization brought urbanization and an exodus of the rural area. Home industry made place for mass fabrication. People went working in fabrics. There was the upcoming of a new social class, the working-class. In the beginning of the industrialization there was a lot of resistance. There were straight riots of workless home workers, who were pressed out of the market by cheaper working new factories.
In history there have taken place more changes. Take for example the invention of the printing press. Before the invention books were written by hand. Only a few people had the privilege to be able to read books. People who could write books where even scarcer. With the introduction of the printing press it became possible to spread knowledge and insights very fast. The printing press was a driving force in change. In the early days of printing it was seen by some people as threatening and dangerous. Others thought that people would always be reading handwritten books and printed books would not be accepted. The invention of the printing press had a great social impact. Today there's digital printing and publicizing your own book on the internet is for everyone within reach. E-readers are a very normal way to read a book.
At this moment there is a transition going on to the information age. Acquire and canalize of information is more important now than the production of goods. The canalization and processing of information cultivates in the old industrial countries continues larger capital currents in comparison to the old industry. Besides the canalization of information there is the entrance of the word “network” or “community”. That is not a new concept, but never before networks did manifest themselves more powerful as nowadays. Network thinking is part of the new paradigm and seems to give an answer to the closed hierarchic organizations. Some people talk about a recession, but when you look from a longterm perspective a transition is taking place, the “digital revolution”. This transition changes society in a fundamental way. No one who sits in the middle of it, knows exactly how it will turn out. There are many questions with open ends on which no one knows the answer.
The digital revolution
According to Moore's law the speed of computers doubles every 18 month. Hard disk drives have fallen in size over the years while dramatically increasing in capacity. Speed of communication networks has been increased. It is not the increase in speed of computers, in capacity of hard disks or in speed of communication networks it self that is interesting, but above all what you can do with it. The internet is available for a broad public since the beginning of the nineties of the 20th century. A high speed broadband connection to the internet is since 2005 for almost everyone a possibility. Mobile internet is emerging fast. All kinds of applications that we thought impossible 15 years ago, now are impossible to think away. Think of email, online shopping and banking, reading the newspaper on the internet, the possibility to download movies en music, blogs, Youtube, Google Earth, LinkedIn, Flickr, Hyves, Skype, Wikipedia, web-tv channels and push media. And this is just a small grab out of all the possibilities the internet has to offer. An invaluable amount of information lays within easy reach.
The fundamental change that is taking place in society, is not caused by political upheavals or economic developments, but by the digital revolution.
Home shopping is becoming more and more easier. Working at home is now already a possibility and will be normal in the future for lots of people. Communication via the internet changes the way of working together, the culture and manners. Hierarchic structures will disappear and giving way to networks where everything and everyone is connected. All people gradually get an IP number and are thus connected to the Internet. Man and machine are more and more integrated. Right now an important part of people always carries a cell phone to be accessible, to be able to chat and to have information available within direct reach, preferably location based. As the network becomes so intertwined, a trend can be observed that everyone has entrance to all information any time. Work and private increasingly run into each other. You can then say you don't want to do home shopping or work at home. Past experiences learn that there is really no choice. What is technically and economical is justified, sooner or later will happen. People will stay shorter in one job. Jobs are constantly changing nature and content. The job of those who are educated today, does not exist at this moment. In the work someone does, technology will be used that has to be invented yet.
From Web 1.0 to Web 2.0 and furthermore
Web 1.0 - The web – connecting people
The Internet of ten years ago was characterized by static webpages. It was only possible to look at information. The internet looked like a very big encyclopedia at distance. The amount of mobile phones is little, but is increasing. This internet is also referred to as Web 1.0.
Web 2.0 – The social web – connecting people
In recent years there are coming more and more opportunities on the Internet to actively create, add and share information. People exchange information with each other within communities. The internet is used to collaborate. The term “prosurism” is introduced. The user is now a consumer as well as a producer of information. For consuming and producing information there are on the internet many applications and tools available. This internet is also referred to as Web 2.0, the social web.
Web 3.0 – The semantic web – connecting intelligence
As more information becomes available on the internet, the Internet becomes more intelligent. Web 3.0 is called the intelligent or semantic web.
Web 4.0 – The ubiquitous web – connecting intelligence
The internet breaks out of the computer en spreads it self over many other devices in an open environment. The Internet is thus not only available at fixed locations via PC or laptop, it also connects mobiel devices to the Internet. For example, a car can be connected to the planning of the garage and car parts are ordered based on sensors in the engine. In this way the internet will be integrated in the physical world. It is everywhere and always available('ubiquitous'). Networks will be connected to each other. With tools like Twitter real-time information is exchanged.
What is changing?
The PC Era started in 1980 and then there was the desktop. Information was stored in file systems. Communication was possible with ftp, usenet, and email. Until 1990 PC's were the normal environment. That was just the beginning. Between the years 1990 and 2000 the World Wide Web was starting to develop. Operating systems like Windows and MacOs were coming up, information was stored on file servers and in databases. In this period websites and groupware were used to share information. Between 2000 and 2010 the World Wide Web was changing from a lot of websites to the social web. Technics like Java, HTML, SOAP and XML made it possible to create wiki's, weblogs, keyword search and SaaS was coming up. From 2010 and further the semantic web and even the WebOS with distributed search, intelligent databases and intelligent personal agents are coming up.
In the early years of computer systems information was stored on mainframe computers. These were big machines with capacity for not too much information. In the years after that personal computers were getting introduced. It was possible for everyone to have a computer at home, with enough capacity to play games and all other funny stuff. After a while people were also using the pc to work at home on their documents and spreadsheets. The last years computers are getting smaller and faster. Desktop computers were replaced with laptop computers. Nowadays everyone is carrying a cellphone or a smartphone. No one leaves the house without a phone when going tot work. There are smart cards and even smart things. You can follow parcels on the internet. You can follow an airplane on the internet and track the flight. And then there is the Ipad and all other tablets that can be used.
In the PC Era, which was dominated by the desktop computer, information was stored in files, folders and databases. Webpages on the World Wide Web are in directories. Keyword searching was the way to search for information. Google is the most used search tool. With the introduction of Web 2.0 searching and finding became more and more difficult. A simple question gave so many answers that finding the answer was a speciality on it's own. With Web 2.0 the introduction of tags must help to find quick answers. Content on the internet is getting tags to make it easier to find the answer on your question. With the rise of Web 2.0 the amount of data on the internet is still increasing and finding information is getting tougher and tougher. Next phase in finding information will be natural language search, semantic search and reasoning. Finding information is very difficult on the internet with that great amounts of data produced by so many people creating content on the internet.
Information used to be stored in filesystems, databases or some other stocks. It's impossible to store all the information that is on the internet behind the firewall in stocks and then search for the things that you need. There is a lot off unstructured data on the internet. A lot of the data is not only text, but also pictures, video's and sound. Data comes in streams that go very fast. It's almost impossible to follow all these information. It's happening now and here. The information is flooding realtime, really fast. It's now possible to follow things happening in the outside world realtime on the internet. There is a lot of information out there that the police can use for their work. Before the age of web 2.0 is was only possible to put the scarce information in stocks and analyze it to see what might be happening tomorrow. Now it is possible to follow realtime what is happening out there in the neighborhoods and as police to be first at scene to prevent the disturbing of the public order.
Web 2.0 and social networks
There are all kinds of tools on the internet that you can use for free. It's not so very difficult to make your own if you can't find one that suites you. The internet is full with this tools you can use. Some of them may be even suitable for work and even police work. Best known examples are the tools that Google is offering on the internet. A lot of Web 2.0 tools are also known as social media, because they make it very easy to interact with other people. With social media tools you can write blogs and other people can write a reaction. The best known tools for blogging are Wordpress and Blogger. You can share pictures on the internet with tools like Panoramio and Flickr. You can place the pictures on Google Streetmap or Google Earth. In this way the whole world is to be seen in pictures that are taking by people all over the world and uploaded to the internet. You can put your professional profile on LinkedIn. There are people all around the world working on the online encyclopedia Wikipedia. Twitter is used to sent short messages into the world. Facebook is growing everyday. Everyday there are a lot of video's being uploaded on Youtube. Around Twitter a whole universe of tools has been come to existence. With it's open architecture it's easy to create all kind of apps that connect to Twitter. Most tweets are send by (mobile) applications that has not been made by Twitter itself. There are tools for example that use geo-location and imaging, url -shortners, relationship management, communication management, stream management and Twitter search. The Web 2.0 world is a world of friends and followers. On social networks you can decide which people you follow and which people can follow you. On Twitter it's very easy to follow other people and you can follow everyone you want to. In this way all kinds of borders and silo's between people and organization are disappearing. With social media tools people can create their own content on the web. It's easy to write a blogpost or start a discussion and express your own opinion about a subject. You can make your own videos and place them on Youtube. There are even people getting famous by posting their homemade video's. Everyone is owner of its own content. You are the only one that can remove your content of the web. But be carefull, before you know your content is copied and then it will be very hard to remove it, it will be on the internet for ever. On Twitter it is easy to get into conversations. Across organizational boundaries it is able to cooperate and exchange information. Collaborate on Twitter can with each other, but actually with anyone who wants to participate. There are no restrictions. You can ask a question and get an answer from out of an unexpected corner. You can also start a conversation with a specific person, but even then it is possible for others to follow this discussion and participate. In this way, many ideas, presentations, links and action plans are shared. Communities are from all times. But the past years a new form of communities are on the internet. Ning is a great platform to create your own community. In the US there is Govloop, it is about connecting the government community and has more than 60.000 members. In the Netherlands Civil Servant 2.0 and Police 2.0 are build on the Ning platform. Civil Servant 2.0 is about investigating what web 2.0 means for the Dutch government and has more then 6000 members. Police 2.0 has the theme “We know more than I”. The goal of the community is to share knowledge about the police, intelligence and the complex ICT dossier, the goal of the community is to share knowledge about the police, intelligence and the complex ICT dossier. The community is growing constantly and more then 2000 members are collaborating. The community is spreading all around the internet and IRL. You can find people communicating and collaborating on various platforms like Twitter, Yammer, Facebook, LinkedIn and more about subjects related to their work. Work can be police work or work in the field of ICT, HRM, management and others. People are also making connections in different communities and are learning from each other. When there is a reason and the subject is suitable people find each other to collaborate. This can be a long term participation or during the period of a project. Above all web 2.0 is about connecting people. People who share the same interests find each other quickly on the internet. The internet makes it easy to connect people within organizations, but also connection with people outside the boundaries of the own physical environment are easily made. It's easy to start a discussion about for example the use of microblogging tools with other civil servants and people working in private companies. It makes it interesting and makes dialogues possible that are not possible within the boundaries of your own company. Discussions about divers subjects, are attracting people from government and companies all over the world. The theme of Police 2.0 is “We know more then I”. Society knows as much or even more then the police. Police work is very complex and is done in the middle of an even more complex society. Sharing knowledge drives innovation. Communities are a great way to share knowledge and in this way drive innovation. A safe society is important for all of us and together we can make our environment is safer. Information is an very important ingredient for the support of good police work. Communities are the new way of organizing. People find each other more and more in communities to work on a common goal or project. Communities can be temporary and when the project has ended, they are broken up and people move on to the next community. The old way of organizing in hierarchies will be left more and more.
Technical aspects of the Internet
The last ten years police has been hiding more and more behind their own firewalls. Police forces have their own secured network on which they do their work. That network stands for the black cable. Information is stored in databases within the firewalls. Police workers are driving around in cars and provided with information that comes to them only from within the firewall. Outside the firewall there is another world. That is the world of the white cable. People are using the internet for all kinds of interaction. Police-workers are at home using the internet for all kind of activities. But when they go to work, they are disconnected and live in a self created world. The difference between those worlds is big and is getting bigger everyday. In the world of web 1.0 and before that period, people are “users of technique”. In the world of web 2.0 and after that period people are “participants in an information system”. The organization used to be the starting point, in the world of web 2.0 people and communication are the starting point. In the world of web 1.0 the world is stable and predictable, in the world of 2.0 the world is vibrantly and innovative. Planning used to be oriented on a achievable world, in the web 2.0 world there should be an agile planning. In the web 1.0 world business and IT are separated, in the web 2.0 world business and IT are talking a common language. In the world of web 1.0 organizations are intern oriented, in the web 2.0 world extern. There are web 2.0 tools that you can use on your smartphone with internet connection. These tools use the possibility of your smartphone to find and send your location. With Foursquare you can share your location with your friends by checking in buildings like restaurants and hotels. You can leave a tip or recommendation. You can take your smartphone with you while running or biking and activate Runkeeper. When you come home Runkeeper has made a track of your route with speed and time. You can share it with your running mates on the internet. And that are just a few examples. Smartphone and iPads are connected to the mobile web. Augmented reality on smartphones makes it possible to see the details of a house that's for sale standing in front of it. You can follow a plane on the internet with a flight tracker. You can follow where your package is that you posted or the book you ordered on the internet. RFID chips are in clothes you buy. You can create QR-codes and QR-codes that others have created you can scan with an app on your smartphone to see what it means. With a QR code on your smartphone you can check in your airplane at a lot of airports. You don't need to print your boarding pass. The internet turned into the internet of things. Everything and everyone is connected anywhere realtime. In this way lots of information is linked together. With tools like WhatsApp you can send text messages with your smartphone via the internet when 3G or Wi-Fi is available. In the same way you're used to do via your telecom provider. You can attach pictures you make with your smartphone, add an audio fragment and your location. You can share status updates with your friends, so they can see if your for example are available or sleeping. Skype is used everywhere in the world to get in contact with people all over the world. The only thing you need is a computer and make an account. In that way you can talk to your friends and family while you see them on video. You can also use Skype on a smartphone. Not on all smartphones you can use the video while calling, but for example the iPhone4 does. A new tool is Viber. It's now only available for the iPhone, but will be soon available for other smartphones. It works in the same way as your phone when 3G or wifi is available. The Internet offers a whole set of web 2.0 tools, we can use mostly free for various activities. The Internet is an immense amount of data in many different forms, both text, video, sound and pictures. The Internet provides very good opportunities to collaborate and to connect people. The Internet is also version 2 of the corporate IT network. Working from anywhere, with any device on each moment that we want, is possible on the internet. Many activities can occur in the public cloud on the internet, for other activities we will be using a hybrid or a private cloud. A great way to communicate within an organization is intern microblogging. In this way it is possible to collaborate with colleges on a project and share where you're working on. It's also a good way to exchange information within a short time period. In this way meetings can be hold on line and there's less need to meet each other in real life. Yammer is an example of an intern microblogging tool. It's possible to hold a #Yamjam that's last an hour. In this hour for example 4 subjects of discussion can be brought in. Everybody can join the conversation and write his or her opinion. At the end of the thread you can make up a conclusion. It's an easy way of sharing information and knowledge. There are a lot of tools you can use for intern microblogging. You can use apps that are available in the cloud like Yammer or build your own platform within the walls of your organization with Open Source tools like Elgg.
Social aspects of the internet
Internet is changing the rules of police work. Internet is affecting security and privacy in all kind of elements. There is even the question if in 20 years privacy still will exist? The upcoming of the use of the internet has generated a lot of cybercrime. This is a whole new world that has to be explored. Camera's are all over the place. Police is using cameras, but companies and citizens are also using cameras and make videos they can put on the internet. Communities on the internet are also called the jungle. Who can see and follow what is happening in all those communities? There is a lot of data on the internet. Not so long ago the data was only text. Now the data on the internet is for a great part pictures, videos and sound. Organization that are organized as hierarchies have had their best time. People are connecting in networks. It is impossible for one person in the top of a company to know everything. People that do the actual work know best how to do this. Animals like bees, birds and fish organize themselves into swarms. Some people call the internet “the swarm of all swarms”. People are connected to each other on base of same interests or for other reasons. They also say people are connected only six handshakes away from each other. Trying to run a company with orders from the boardroom without commitment of the rest of the organization will be an useless mission. All kinds of principles that are now common have to be filled in differently. When thinking about innovation, we think about working with Web 2.0 tools and we think off a concept like cloud computing. Our email is somewhere in the cloud, we're working on documents that are on a server in another continent. This means not only that there are many technical changes, but it also means that we will have to find another way how we handle our information. Now we are desperately trying to keep as much information as possible within our own firewalls on our own servers. When our data is in the cloud somewhere on a server abroad it may as well be safe. Maybe even safer, but it means a different way of looking at information security. Knowledge sharing and collaboration can only succeed if there is full transparency. Trust and integrity are playing an important role. Often relationships are now based on mistrust. This will have to be filled in differently. To maximize data sharing there has to be a different approach to openness. Data sharing goes from “closed” to “open unless”. That's a quest. What data do we have? What information can we share? It may well be that there is much more data that can be shared than we think. Estimates assume that even 80% of the data can be shared. If not more. Web 2.0 makes collaboration across borders and organizations possible. Previously it was very common to keep all the information for your self. The principle was “knowledge is power” and the more knowledge I have, the more powerful I am. Sharing knowledge is much stronger and this way of working is much more effective and efficient than the old way of working. The interconnectedness is increasing, although sharing knowledge with people you do not know so well is often more profitable then only with people you know well. Sustainability in the coming years plays an important role. We can not endlessly go on using the resources of our planet without thinking. One of the main changes is the transition from a closed to an open society. It requires a huge cultural change, but offers many opportunities. The availability of public data gives others the opportunity to use these data for all kind of purposes. The use of open source software, will allow communities to work towards a good product available in the world.
How breaking news is spreading across the Internet
At the Mumbai Attacks in November 2008 Twitter, Flickr, blogs and all other social networks were used to bring the news all over the world. The news went fast and there was news, photos and eyewitness accounts. The tweets followed up each other very fast. Twitter was even used to ask for blood donors because the hospital was running out of blood. On Wikipedia there was set up a page within minutes of the breaking news. Others created a Google Map with links to stories and pictures. In Januari 2009 a plane crashed in the Hudson River in New York. First pictures were seen on Twitter. News was spread like wildfire across the Twitterverse. In februari 2009 a plane crashed at the airport of the Netherlands, Schiphol Amsterdam. First news and pictures were are again spread by Twitter. After a while news is coming from the “old media”. From the airport there's little news. Eyewitnesses who were tweeting, saw the plane crash and gave first aid before emergency services were on the spot. Queensday in Apeldoorn on April 30, 2009 had to be a festive day. However, there has been made an attack on the Queen. A man is driving a car through the crowd. The car stops while driving very hard against a monument. Photos and videos of the incident are within an instant on the Internet. Detailed data of the offender are on the internet within minutes on the basis of the license plate. The beach party Sunset Grooves at Hoek of Holland in August 2010 is running out of control. The news can be followed realtime on the internet. Via Twitter messages are streaming in. Via mobile phones are hundreds of photos and videos are uploaded. More than one hour after the start of the riots there is only a first small post to read through the "old media". Pictures and videos from amateurs and police are afterwards helping by the reconstruction. In Amsterdam an employee of a daycare center confesses the abuse of dozens of children. In December 2010 early on a Sunday evening there is a meeting of parents of children in a hotel in Amsterdam. Via Twitter it soon became known and also that around ten o'clock a press conference will be held. The press conference can be followed via the internet worldwide. During the press conference there will be shown only a photo of the offender. Within minutes via Twitter name, occupation and even pages on Marketplace, the Dutch Ebay were shared. Everybody in the world knows what's going on, even though there are still many unanswered questions for many people. The way of communicating about this kind of big cases has changed forever. It's wise to give as much information as possible to minimize rumors. Do this even if the news is very bad. In January 2011 there was a large fire in Moerdijk. Through social networks the news quickly founds his way. Photos and even videos were publiced by citizens. Journalists were tweeting a live report. Obvious was the silence from the government. Great balls of fire and black smoke were leading to cause great concern and there was a lot of speculation what was going on. Then at some point the mayor held a press conference and said that there was no danger to health. Nobody believed that anymore. In april 2011 there was a shooting in a mall. A 25 year old man walked trough the mall while shooting with an automatic gun. Seven people were killed and a lot were wounded. After the shooting he committed suicide. On the internet there were 15 tweets per second worldwide and hundreds of twitpics were uploaded. The identity of the offender was within minutes circulating on the internet, including adres and phone number. Very good communication both from the mayor and the police ensured that calmness was kept and public was very well informed about the last situation. Social Networks like Twitter, Facebook and other ways to communicate via the internet are becoming an integral part of the modern world. People are looking there for answers on their questions.
Some examples on how the Dutch police is using the internet
Police officers tweeting and blogging
There are many police officers who are active on the Internet. There are now many to be found on twitter and there are police officers who are writing a blog. It can be about business as well as private subjects. Increasingly you see that business and private tend to mingle. The boundaries between work and private blur and also the hours that people are engaged in work or pleasure. On a Saturday evening or gray Sunday morning through social networks, contacts and even appointments are made.
Police forces on Twitter
In February 2009 the first police force in the Netherlands became active on Twitter. Police Brabant Southeast came in the news and the word Twitter was used for the first time in the national media. A web 2.0 tool was used in a 1.0 way. It was used for sending information. Soon followed many police forces with their own Twitter account. Basically in this way a Web 2.0 tool is used in a 1.0 way. Police forces transmit information primarily through their Twitter accounts, real interaction and reciprocity is not always there. In the background of the twitter account and in the bio is written that in an emergency you should call the usual phone numbers.
Public Ministry on Twitter
Since a short period also the Public Ministry has a Twitter account. It is sending information about court cases.
Court Reporter on Twitter
In one police district, there is a court reporter who is tweeting from the court with the hashtag #twitcourt and he is writing blogs about court cases. He gets a lot of comments on his blog and there are many people who follow him on Twitter.
Police officers on Twitter
Twitter is a Web 2.0 tool that is designed primarily to communicate with other people. It is not really designed for companies and organizations to transmit information only. People do not want to communicate with logos of companies, but with real human faces. In September 2009, the first policemen started twittering. He was at that very moment working on a thesis about social media as part of his study Integral Safety Science. He is tweeting what he does and why he does it. At first he was tweeting with his own smartphone. He told about his progress on his thesis in blogs on Police 2.0. Not long after that other police officers followed his example in various police departments in the Netherlands. Important condition for success is that a policeman has a mobile device available. In this way he or she can tweet anywhere and anytime. In some police districts, these resources are available and the use of Twitter has taken a flight. The use of Twitter is also spreading quickly to the chain partners of the police. In other regions no mobile phones are available for police officers, which is a major limitation for further development of this successful way of communication. In the Netherlands at the time of writing this text more than 230 community policemen and women are active on Twitter. The first community policemen taught himself how and what to tweet. Now police officers are trained, supervised and coached professionally when they are going to use Twitter.
Recruitment of a new press officer on Youtube
In one region a press officer was recruited with the aid of Youtube. A recruitment video has been made and uploaded to Youtube. Through other communication channels, there has been asked attention for this recruitment activity. Candidates who were interested could apply for the position by sending a video where they presented themselves. Eventually, 12 people responded and sent a video. From these submissions the new press officer was selected. Who then proposed herself by using a video on Youtube.
Investigation using social media
Many police districts now have a Youtube channel. Videos with information and also videos with questions for help with investigation are placed. It seems a very effective way to share information in addition to any other communication tools already in use. Placing investigation questions is very successful and has changed the way of investigating crimes. In this way the help of citizens can be relied upon. Speed of publication immediately after an incident is very important for fast detection of perpetrators. Police is following and listening what is said on social media. In that way, people are constantly informed of the latest news and when unexpected things happen, then there can be taken action immediately. Much information on the internet can contribute to the detection of crime.
Robberies on Google Maps
On Google Maps information is posted about robberies. A specific location is marked and text and, images and videos are added. The moment when a robbery is solved, the mark will be made green. In this way it will be visible to citizens what is happening in their neighborhood and they can contribute to solving robberies.
Tips via Internet
There are initiatives by citizens and entrepreneurs to help get society safer. Citizens can use an app "Outside Better" on their smartphone to report incidents to the local authority. These are tips about for example rubbish on the streets that does not belong there. The tips are coming in at the municipality, which can take care that the problem is solved. Police officers can also use this app and report a incident. In the city of Tilburg in the Netherlands it is possible to send live streaming video by using a cell phone with an internet connection to the emergency room. Someone has made a website where people can post lost and found bikes. In this way, already divers bikes have found their way back to the legal owner. A police region has launched a website which is called "Is this yours?". On this website stolen goods are displayed in the hope that these in this way finds their way back to its legal owner. There are websites where raiders, street-robbers and kidnappers that are being sought. The Internet is increasingly used to try to solve all kinds of crimes. These initiatives are done by both citizens and the police themselves.
Wiki with web 2.0 initiatives
Wikis provide opportunities to share information. There is a wiki page in use where all initiatives in the field of new media in the Netherlands are put together. In this way, all this information is shared and people can take over successful initiatives from each other.
Employees on photos and videos
At various moments pictures and videos of police officers are being made and published on the Internet. Often agents are not very rosy on. Important is a piece of awareness. Everyone should realize that he or she can be on a photo or video everywhere and at anytime. When there are demonstrations and the mobile units are there to prevent people to go to places they're not allowed tot go, there can be trying to make police officers angry meanwhile carrying a mobile photo and shooting video. When there's a professional action, people can shoot every photo or video they want. Be aware there is always someone who tries out how professional cops are. It's also possible to present yourself on photos or videos as a professional. Community police-workers show on videos their work in the neighborhood and tell what they are doing. In this way you don't wait until someone makes a video and puts it on Youtube, but you make on yourself or one has been made by the local news. You can tell your own story and are not depended on what the press is saying about you.
Break out! Living in the new unreality
This is the title of the book Huub Stiekema has written. It is a recommendation for those who want to read more about the possibilities of the digital revolution for the police. It is written specifically for police officers. The book takes the reader into the changing world with the internet as a driver of change. Into a world where "command and control" will be replaced by "communication and collaboration", where hierarchies lose value and are replaced by networks and communities, where borders are fading and international cooperation is nothing special. Huub is describing the changes that have taken place in recent decades of police work in a more and more complex society. The changes are going very fast and the time to adapt to these changes is very short. The police will have to get involved in this changing world and adapt faster than ever to stay connected with society. And if necessary to be the first spot at scene. Especially the use and sharing of information is essential. The principle of "open unless" is leading. In the book the internet society is described in which we live. The internet brings among many social changes also technical changes. The IT landscape as we know it today will change to a landscape of cloud services, application services, social networking and multimedia devices. The information and communication technology of the police will have to come along in this world. Current information and communication technology is a reflection of the companies closed culture. It is internally focused and there is no open connection to the outside world. The future information and communication technology will have to be externally focussed and should allow open communication. Thereby is has to be focused on human communication and should be driven by the internet. Consumer technology develops faster than the technology used in companies. These techniques, that are now are only used by consumers, will be quickly adopted in the next years by companies to be able to rapidly adapt to the changing world. Huub is telling in his book about intelligence and the important role it plays in police work. He also sketches a picture of the police in the digital era with many new possibilities, but also many challenges. Collaboration and sharing knowledge are leading elements. There are no more users of applications, but we are all participants in information systems. With that fits a technical infrastructure and architecture based on the principle of 'Anywhere, anytime, any device ". Huub is elaborating on the trust and security issues. Information sharing is important, but must be done safely. Sharing information is therefore definitely a strategic issue for the police and must be high on the agenda. The current technical infrastructure and architecture is not suitable. It will have to be renewed. Besides that, there are especially non-technical elements that must build confidence in today's network society. Trust is the foundation of agility, which is so important for an organization to constantly innovate and rapidly adapt to change. Are you interested in the book, follow this link: http://bit.ly/duiigG.
