Posts Tagged ‘Driving under the influence’

 

Drink, Drive, Go to Jail, AND Get Tweeted

Monday, December 12th, 2011

If you’ve ever had the opportunity to participate in a ride along with one of your local police officers, it was no doubt a memorable experience.  For those that aren’t used to that type of work, even a routine traffic stop can be exciting to witness.  However, if you don’t have the courage to sit in the passenger seat while one of your city’s finest serves and protects, Twitter may have provided the next best thing.

Dubbing it a “tweet along”, the Arlington, TX Police Department allowed their followers to have a peek of what a Friday night looks like for its officers.

The Chief of Police himself, Dr. Theron Bowman, rode in the passenger seat with one of the department’s DWI Task Force members and tweeted updates and pictures of the night’s activities.  The purpose was to not only give their followers a fun experience on Twitter, but to also educate people about the dangers of drinking and driving.

The event didn’t disappoint, and Chief Bowman took time to respond to as many questions as he could.  In his opinion, the night would have been successful even if just one person decided not to drink and drive because of the tweet along.

If there’s one thing that Twitter is best for, it’s keeping up with events minute by minute as they happen.  When a hashtag is established, as it was by the Arlington Police twitter feed, it allows everyone following along to post their thoughts or questions in a way that is almost like a chat room.  The result is that ideas spread with a speed that simply can’t be matched by traditional PR methods.

We can only hope that other police departments around the country take notice of how the Arlington Police Department conducted this event.  It was a brilliant way to gain publicity, and perhaps several lives were saved, as well.