THUNDER BAY – Crimebeat – Nishnawbe Aski Police Service Moves into Social Media. Across Northern Ontario, where the Nishnawbe-Aski Police Service (NAPS) officers patrol communities across this vast region of Ontario, thousands of residents are online. In fact with the Nishnawbe-Aski Nation (NAN) Broadband effort, the goal will be having more of the communities on high-speed fibre-optic Internet access. Many of those individuals are already using social media. Through K-Net, most people across Northwestern Ontario have access to the Internet.
Nishnawbe-Aski Police Service Move into Social Media
The evidence of the growing role of the Internet and social media in the north can be seen in how students in Attawapiskat have used Youtube to get out the message that they need a new school. Shannen’s Dream is a powerful youth movement that has continued to grow, sharing that message around the world.
For the NAPS moving into social media, and boosting their Internet engagement is a very sound and sensible move.
On Tuesday January 24th, 2012 the Guelph Police Service added two additional officers working with the Service. Nishnawbe-Aski Police Service’s (NAPS) Sergeant Jackie George, Recruitment / Media Relations Officer and Constable Chris Carson, Coordinator of Community Policing, will job shadow in the Guelph Police Service recruiting, media and community relations work units.
“Chief Chum and I are very excited about this ‘job shadowing’ opportunity with the Guelph Police Service. Our officers are looking forward to this unique learning opportunity and hope to observe the work that the Guelph Police are doing, specifically with social media and how that relates to community relations. The Nishnawbe-Aski Police Service is in the early planning stages of implementing a full social media strategy. The Guelph Police Service is at the forefront of social media in policing and we feel this is a great learning opportunity,” commented Inspector Pierre Guerard, Director of Operations for NAPS North East Region.
“The implementation of social media platforms in the Guelph Police Service has effectively increased our capacity to connect and share information, on a real-time basis, with our local community and with the greater social media network. We have also implemented social media into our community relations programs for our officers to stay connected with high school students on a one-on-one basis. We now have an opportunity to share these programs with our policing partners at NAPS just as we ourselves had support from other police services like Toronto Police Service and the OPP in building our social media framework. This will be a tremendous initiative for NAPS especially with the expansive territory they oversee, and we welcome their participation” stated Shelagh Morris, Director of Corporate Services for the Guelph Police Service.
The NAPS officers will then attend the Ontario Media Resource Officers Network – OMRON meeting on January 26-27, 2012 that is being hosted by the Guelph Police Service at the CRESC facility. “OMRON is a police-media relations committee that meets three times per year to bring together police and civilian media relations spokespersons to discuss training, media relations strategies and our outreach opportunities,” shared Sgt. Doug Pflug, the Guelph Police Media Relations Officer.
