The Baden-Württemberg police are represented as a whole on Instagram. In addition, each police headquarters has its own Facebook and Twitter account. We therefore also use a Facebook and Twitter account at the Pforzheim Police Headquarters. While we operate Facebook as an information channel for the Pforzheim police, we also use Twitter for public relations work and communication during large-scale operations.
Is the police presence on social media becoming more important?
Channels are becoming increasingly important as social media grows in influence. It is our contribution here to present the police work transparently, to inform citizens and to show their presence, since the network is not a legal vacuum.
What criteria do you use to choose what ends up on Facebook?
In principle, we select current topics in prevention and recruitment advice.
In addition, we report on Facebook about outstanding events that we have already published in the press portal. Press releases are usually published with a delay.
Current events in which dangers are warned, witnesses are sought or wanted are published immediately.
What feedback do you get from Facebook users?
We get mostly positive feedback. Of course, there are sometimes hateful comments or suspected conspiracy theories.
Does a Facebook presence actually help to achieve success in police work?
Facebook, but also Twitter and Instagram help us to make police work more transparent. In addition, it also enables us to portray the police officer as human beings and also to provide other insights into police work. We have already been able to find several missing persons through published articles and obtain important witness information. It is also a great success that we maintain our image and enjoy great support from the population. A major nationwide success is the ongoing campaign for the rescue alley: #MachPlatz and #WirWollenRetten!
The police_BW Instagram channel of the entire state police recently celebrated its 50,000th follower. What are the numbers at the Pforzheim Police Headquarters?
The online presence of our police headquarters is still very young and will soon be celebrating its first birthday. After eleven months, we have over 7500 followers on Facebook and over 1300 followers on Twitter. Compared to other praesidia that have been running the channels for many years, we are far behind with their follower numbers.
The area of the Pforzheim Police Headquarters extends over two different dialect-language areas. You often add the Baden hashtag “wasischpassiert” to your posts. In Swabian it should mean “wasischbassiert”. Has it already been discussed?
(laughs) Yeah, the thing with the dialects. The hashtag “wasischnbassiert” came about spontaneously and is actually more related to the Pforzheim region. The hashtag is actually celebrated supraregionally positively with a wink. Let’s see how it develops. Of course, there are also events for which this hashtag is not suitable. Tim Geideck asked the questions
– .
