By Ashley Wiebe

Police, RCMP using social media as a tool

Mar 9, 2018 | 3:40 PM

MEDICINE HAT, AB — Social media helps keep people informed about what family and friends are up to and what’s happening in the community.

The platforms to share what’s happening in our lives have grown exponentially over the years and people are sharing more information then ever before.

Mounties and city police have started using social media as a tool.

“When I first got into the RCMP, we didn’t have an email system in 1997,” said S/Sgt. Sean Maxwell with the Redcliff detachment. “[…] I got told that ‘it’s nice that I like to type things, but in the RCMP we handwrite everything’.”

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Maxwell has seen how technology has evolved over the last 21 years.

He has also seen the change in the way people communicate with one another and how they share things about what’s happening around them.

Maxwell checks in on a popular Facebook group for Redcliff residents, as a way to see what’s happening around town.

“There have been a couple of Saturday evenings where I’ve been on the Everything Redcliff Facebook page, where people have posted about a suspicious truck in town and I’ve seen it and I’ve contacted night shift and said ‘can you guys go out there and have a look’,” he said. “In some cases they don’t find the vehicle, necessarily, but in some cases, maybe they do. And the thing is, with a suspicious vehicle, you don’t know until you talk to the people what they’re up to.”

Despite how immersed the world seems to be in social media, Maxwell said a face-to-face conversation will always be important.

“People should make sure that they’re not using that as a replacement for calling in actual complaints,” he added.

The Medicine Hat Police Service has also embraced social media, using it as a tool to let people know what’s going on as it’s happening.

“Its improved the way we communicate with the city, so if there’s any type of incident -we’ve had a couple of code 300s, or people armed and barricaded in the last month or so- so we can get information out to the public immediately,” said Inspector Brent Secondiak on Friday.

Secondiak is 19 years into his career, now finishing his master’s degree and has seen the influence social media can have in law enforcement.

“I’ve had several courses on social media and I’ve heard both sides of the story,” he said. “Some police officers that don’t like social media, don’t want to use it. I’m different, I think that social media’s important, I think it’s important that the public knows what we’re doing.”

“All in all, its improved us. Its made us probably better at what we do, its made us quicker at what we do. I think its made us more accountable as well,” he added.