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Survey: Citizens want cops on Facebook

In results released at IACP, respondents said they’re only minimally informed of local police activities

By P1 Staff

SAN DIEGO — About 90 percent of citizens believe they have an important role to play in reporting crime but almost the same number say they’re only minimally informed of local police activities, according to a new survey.

The numbers were released by Accenture at IACP 2012, where representatives said the way to bridge the gap, citizens think, is through digital channels.

“Citizens want to receive and share information with police through their method of choice,” said Ger Daly of Accenture.

Eighty-one percent of survey respondents in Canada, Germany, Netherlands, Spain, the United States and the United Kingdom said they would most likely use Facebook to interact with police, and 35 percent said Twitter.

Only 20 percent, however, believe their local police use that kind of media. And even in the US, where the highest rate of citizens said they felt “well informed,” more online communication was requested.

An infographic from Accenture includes the rest of the survey results.

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