Social Media - New Face of Collaborative Policing? A Survey Exploring Perceptions, Behavior, Challenges for Police Field Officers and Residents

Online social media (OSM) has become a preferred choice of police to communicate and collaborate with citizens for improved safety. Various studies investigate perceptions and opinion of high ranked police officers on use of OSM in policing, however, understanding and perceptions of field level police personnel is largely unexplored. We collected survey responses of 445 police personnel and 204 citizens' survey in India to understand perceptions on OSN use for policing. Further, we analyzed posts from Facebook pages of Indian police organizations to study the behavior of police and citizens as they pursue social and safety goals on OSN. We find that success of OSN for policing demands effective communication between the stakeholders (citizens and police). Our results show preliminary evidences that OSN use for policing can help (1) increase participation in problem solving process, (2) increase community engagement by providing unique channel for both Feedback and Anonymity. However, such a system will need appropriate acknowledgment and trustworthiness channels to be successful. We also identify challenges in adopting OSN and outline design opportunities for HCI researchers and practitioners to design tools supporting social interactions for policing.