Seattle Police Crime Blotter is Now 51 Hyper-Local Twitter Feeds

 interface, Internet News
Oct 032012
 

The city of Seattle is taking its police blotter to Twitter.

Called “Tweets-by-beat,” the Seattle Police Department has started 51 hyper-local Twitter accounts, based on officers’ beats, to keep residents up-to-date about the happenings in their neighborhood.

The digital program started the last week of August, and will supplement the department’s online blotter. Anyone can read these feeds — even people who aren’t on Twitter, says Sgt. Sean Whitcomb of the department’s Public Affairs office.

“We made it super easy,” he tells Mashable. “All you need is an Internet connection.”

The idea behind the new Twitter accounts is to raise public awareness of personal safety and to prevent crimes.

“Maybe people will take the time to use some common sense to reduce the likeihood of them being victims of crime,” Whitcomb says.

The department has used its main Twitter account @SeattlePD for several years; it tweets about topics ranging from breaking crime news to a lost pet snake in a local park.

MORE: Seattle Police Crime Blotter is Now 51 Hyper-Local Twitter Feeds.