From Richmond Police press release:

Richmond Police will join more than 100 law enforcement agencies across eight countries this Friday in the first ever Global Tweet-A-Thon!

This means the Department will take citizens for a virtual ride along via the Department’s Twitter account–@RichmondPolice–with Fourth Precinct Master Patrol Officer Al Joyner from noon to 4 p.m. on Friday, March 22.

“I look forward to giving citizens a realistic idea about the types of things we encounter and deal with on a regular basis,” Officer Joyner said. “I may be more of a Facebook person than a Twitter person, but I believe social media is key in helping to keep our community informed about what we do.”

Officer Joyner has been with the Department for 18 years and has patrolled in Fourth Precinct for more than a decade. His most recent assignment is Sector 413, which includes the neighborhoods of Jackson Ward, Oregon Hill, City Center, VCU and Oregon Hill. He loves the area because of its diversity, challenges and growth. Public Information Officer Dionne Waugh will ride with Officer Joyner and do the tweeting this time so he can focus on his immediate tasks.

Deputy Chief Eric English believes the Department’s first TweetAlong will further community policing efforts by keeping the community informed in real time.

“We are already nationally known for our leading social media efforts on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and others. By participating in this Global Tweet-a-Thon, we will improve upon that knowledge and expand the Richmond community’s understanding and experience of what our officers do,” he said.

The goal of the Global Tweet-a-Thon is to bring attention to the use of social media by law enforcement agencies. Agencies will tweet using the same hashtag, #poltwt, to create awareness about police work and issues police face as well as to promote the use of social media in policing.

“We are excited to bring together police agencies around the world in this first of its kind social media event,” said Lauri Stevens, founder of LAwS Communications and organizer of the Global Police Tweet-a-Thon. “We hope it sends the message to non-law enforcement that their police officers are up to speed with social media, and that they should use the channel to talk with police officers and to be stewards of public safety.”

There are currently more than 100 agencies participating from the U.S., Canada, UK, Sweden, Iceland, and Australia. Any agency can join the Tweet-a-thon and tweet any portion of the 24-hour period. For a list of participating agencies, please visit: https://twitter.com/ConnectedCOPS/police-tweet-a-thon-2013/members.

For a Google map of participating agencies, please see http://goo.gl/maps/Hqkgf

Dionne Waugh
Public Affairs Unit
Richmond Police Department
200 W. Grace St.
Richmond, VA 23220
Direct Phone (804) 646-5758
Office Phone (804) 646-0607
http://www.richmondgov.com/Police
www.Facebook.com/RichmondPolice
www.Twitter.com/RichmondPolice
www.Pinterest.com/RichmondPolice