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Twitterers

By Jay Treadway

April 16th, 2009

I’m pretty new to social networking myself; real green at it so far. However, I now have a profile on Facebook, LinkenIn and Twitter. Our company uses Twitter to send out updates from our suppliers and other news. While I don’t receive these “Tweets” on my cell phone yet, I do have it set-up so that I can view them online at the office.

Today I saw an article about how police departments are using Twitter to inform the public about some things going on in their communities. The article was about how the Milwaukee Police Department is using Twitter to alert people about many things, such as: traffic disruptions, crime prevention tips, bomb scares, wildfires, school lockdowns and evactions.  

The article also went on to say that many police departments now use Twitter including Boston, Baltimore, Boulder, Richmond, and many others. Fire departments are using Twitter as well. Even the FBI has joined in with “FBIPressOffice” on Twitter. They has over 2,000 followers, including at least 150 public safety agencies.

This all makes sense, I think. Why not use this technology for the public good? There are some concerns about abuse of this tool, but most think it’s pretty safe. Maybe I’ll sign up for the FBI Twitter website and see what I get!

If you’d like to read the full article, click here. If you want to check out the Milwaukee Police and FBI Twitter sites, click the links below:

Milwaukee Police 

FBI

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