HOW #MyNYPD BACKFIRED ON NEW YORK'S FINEST

Social media is a much like a sharp kitchen knife, very useful, powerful and a masterful tool when used by a professional. One slip in concentration however, can result in some pretty nasty wounds being inflicted. The NYPD still has an open wound stemming from a failed hashtag attempt in April this year.

THE NYPD

The NYPD (New York Police Department) is a United States Government entity charged with the responsibility of protecting and serving the people of New York. It is the largest municipal (local government) police force in the United States as listed by the American Bureau of Justice statistics (http://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/lpd07.pdf) with over 35,000 sworn personnel and over 51,000 full time employees which equates to 63 staff to serve every 10,000 residents according to 2007 data.

The organisation is publicly overseen by the Police Commissioner, William J Bratton, whose duty it is to oversee the day-to-day running of the NYPD whilst appointing deputy’s and subordinate officers. It is worth noting that Commissioner Bratton has his own twitter handle @CommissBratton. Think back to this when reading the last paragraph.

#MyNYPD

#MyNYPD was a social media initiative presumably thought up by the NYPD public relations department to increase the positive public perception of the NYPD by allowing twitter users to categorise their posts using the #MyNYPD hashtag. The idea was that the public could post positive encounters they have had with New Yorks finest in the form of a tweet with text and images, and these posts would be grouped under the #MyNYPD. The more people that tweeted their positive encounters, the more popular the hashtag would become, the greater the positive public perception...right? I think that is what the NYPD public relations department thought.

HOW IT STARTED

On april 22 @NYPDnews published this twitter post, which invited followers to share their positive experiences with the NYPD. The post was accompanied by a picture of a smiling citizen with 2 officers either side sharing a awkward embrace. The initial reaction was seemingly positive with the replies to this initial post consisting of users sharing stories of police being helpful and courteous. Then the general populace of the internet caught on, and things went downhill.

WHAT THE NYPD SHOULD HAVE CONSIDERED

Simon Rogerson and Christine Fidler’s publication on social technology ethics titled A practical perspective of information ethics, introduces 8 ethical principles relating to Information Systems and IT that can be applied and considered before deciding on a social media initiative. These ethical principles are:

• Honour - is the action considered beyond reproach?
• Honesty - will the action violate any explicit or implicit agreement or trust?
• Bias - are there any external considerations that may bias the action to be taken?
• Professional adequacy - is the action within the limits of capability?
• Due care - is the action to be exposed to the best possible quality assurance standards?
• Fairness - are all stakeholder's views considered with regard to the action?
• Consideration of social cost - is the appropriate accountability and responsibility accepted with respect to this action?
• Effective and efficient action - is the action suitable, given the objectives set, and is it to be completed using the least expenditure of resources?

When applied to the #MyNYPD campaign, these ethical principles may have raised a few questions about whether or not it was the best idea to implement. I am applying these principles before revealing what happened, as this is how the principles should have been applied, not in hindsight.

Honour: The campaign would be considered honourable in the sense that it encourages the sharing of positive interactions between the public and NYPD personnel.

Honesty: The campaign is not really skirting the issues of trust as it is is between a public service entity and the public that entity serves.

Bias: The campaign itself is not biased, however the timing and implications associated with previous events should have been considered as when these are taken into context, it makes the campaign seem manipulative and conceited. I will explain why next.

Professional Adequacy: It is assumed that the public relations department were charged with the duty of managing the NYPD social media.

Due Care: When planning a social media initiative it is always pertinent to consider both the positive outcomes, and the potentially negative outcomes that may arise. #MyNYPD screams of a social media initiative where only the positive outcomes were acknowledged, whilst the possible negative outcomes were either ignored or never considered.

Fairness: The NYPD stakeholders are essentially the public that the NYPD protects. #MyNYPD considers the views of citizens who have had positive experiences, but fails to acknowledge and anticipate those who have had negative or traumatic experiences.

Consideration of Social Cost: It could be argued that the social costs of #MyNYPD was not considered as the true gravity of the campaign and its impact had far reaching consequences which were badly managed by the NYPD.

Effective and efficient action: Unfortunately the #MyNYPD campaign was not effective, and I doubt could ever be effective, as crime, and policing that crime is a polarising topic, especially in the last 10 years in the United states.

WHAT THEY FAILED TO CONSIDER

The Occupy Movement

The Occupy movement is best described as a global protest against both social and economic inequality. It has made famous the slogan “we are the 99%” which highlights the massive disparity between rich and poor brought about by rampant capitalism. The movement has been attributed to bringing about major protests in countries such as Spain, Greece, South America the United Kingdom and the United States to name a few. Most importantly the movement gained major traction when it was involved in the Occupy Wall street.

The protest that began September 17, 2011. The protest’s epicentre was Zuccotti park located in the Financial district on private land that the NYPD could not legally prevent access to. The demographic of original protestors was of young, predominantly white New Yorker’s who were socially aware and highly adept users of social media technology (i.e twitter) which they used to promote the protest. The protesters took over the park setting up a mini community with amenities, a library, common areas over the 2 month period. Tensions were high as the protesters disrupted local businesses and refused to leave the park. the original protest was disbanded 2 months later on November 15, but had resurgences well into 2012 with attempt to re-occupy Zuccotti park.

The protest and its dismantling by the NYPD, was characterised by what many perceived to be police brutality, excessive force, unnecessary arrests and and almost military level response. The protest divided many in the City, with passionate proponents and vehement objectors. It received large amounts of media coverage, but due to the developments in technology, participants and bystanders collected a cache or images of the NYPD in compromising and sometimes disturbing scenarios. This should have been a red flag for the NYPD Public relations department. Passionate and media savvy individuals do not often forget quickly when they feel they have been wronged.

Increased public scrutiny

Even if the Occupy Wall street movement had not happened, or had been less insignificant, inviting public contribution is not an exercise to be entered into without considering all options. Police make arrests on the street in full view of passers by, who have mobile phone which can record video, audio and take pictures. The NYPD failed to consider that their officers actions, both positive and negative have the possibility of being recorded one way or another. You cannot ask for one, without expecting people to share the other!

Police brutality is an issue that has garnered a fair chunk of media and social attention. Its become such an issue, that popular media outlet The Huffington Post has a feed dedicated to Police Brutality which has been actively contributed to since well before April 2014. This topic is fuelled by videos and images of police performing their duties in questionable ways captures by members of the public, the same audience that the NYPD asked for contribution from.

WHAT HAPPENED

Once the #MyNYPD handle gained traction and began trending, people began posting images of NYPD officers in confronting images depicting violence, force and a lack of compassion for the people that they serve. The hashtag grew from a single seemingly harmless and positive post, to a unmanageable uncontrollable and highly negative social media storm. It re-awakened the issue of police brutality and ended up having the opposite effect that the NYPD had presumably hoped for. It also manifested into other hashtags targeting nation wide law enforcement as outlined in this article from ABC news. Not only did the hashtag taint the reputation of the NYPD but its tarred the Denver Police department (#MyDPD), Austin Police department (#MyAPD), Oakland police department (#MyOPD) to name a few.







The hashtag is still active, it's still being used, and the posts are still very negative. The hashtag and its manifested children have become a sounding board for criticism of police departments and their officers, nationwide. An example of this is a recent post on the #MyNYPD hashtag publicising the deadly actions of an off duty police officer who drove the wrong way up a highway killing himself and another.

The NYPD have learnt a valuable lesson for the future, with social technology comes responsibility, not only for yourself, but in some cases other parties.

THE IMPACT

The hardest lesson that the NYPD learnt with this unfortunate slip up is that they now have no control over the hashtag, or the effects that it has upon their reputation and the reputation of other police departments. They mistakenly invited public contribution and feedback, and they got it, they got the best of it, and the got the worst of it. It is hard to measure the impact of such a mistake, its intangible. You cannot measure it in terms of money lost, or how many people contributed to the hashtag, or how many people have viewed the original post. It would take an immense amount of analysis to even see how many people have even contributed to the #MyNYPD. That is before you consider the people who have become aware of the media mistake through other media avenues.

The hashtag has started a discussion and that discussion does not look like stopping. I seems each week a new video or image is surfacing of police arresting someone, that from an outsiders perspective looks violent and unnecessary. A prime example of this is the unfortunate death of a man who was suspected of selling loose cigarettes, as a result of the NYPD officers strangling him during his arrest.

This sort of media and social media exposure can only reflect negatively on the NYPD and other police departments. Officers will now come under increased scrutiny, which may hinder their ability in a situation where force is necessary. It’s hard to say what barriers this sort of attention puts in front of officers doing their job, but I can only imagine it makes it harder.

The NYPD Public relations department has also come under further scrutiny over their lack of direct response to the failed hashtag. There seems to have been no direct acknowledgement from the PR department as to the public reaction. I would hazard a guess that the department is out of their depth in the tidal wave of backlash, but no response at all seems like a very head in the sand solution to a problem that is not going away.

THE RESPONSE

The NYPD had already released strict guidelines for social media use and personal profiles as reported by The NY Times back in 2013, before the #MyNYPD. Following #MyNYPD the police department has sent its officers to Twitter School to teach twitter etiquette as the The Wall Street Journal reports. Police Commissioner William Bratton is pushing for large scale adoption of twitter accounts within the NYPD. Since his appointment Jan 1st this year, the NYPD twitter sphere has grown from 1 account being @NYPDnews to dozens of accounts for personnel to utilise.

To me this suggests that the current social media guidelines might need improving. Whilst under effect there has been a controversial social media campaign. Now they are pushing for a large number of twitter accounts that will be presumably maintained by individuals with little real world experience in social media use. A short class in twitter etiquette is one thing, but considering the far reaching effects of what you say, how you say it and how it may come across is a completely different kettle of fish. After #MyNYPDgate I would be trying to decrease potential exposure, not empowering inexperienced users with a twitter soapbox. Failing that I would want to have a rock solid set of rules on what to say, how to say it and who to say it to. Im going to watch this space in the future.

HOW TO AVOID #MyNYPD2.0?

Avoiding a situation like this in the future comes down to consideration and review. The NYPD needs to consider all possibilities before engaging on social media. If you want positive contributions only, use a platform that allows for moderation and control. If you use an open platform like twitter, don’t poke the bear and ask the general populace for feedback. Consider the medium, its usage and its limitations.

From my perspective it seems the #MyNYPD campaign was an effort to gain recognition from the community for the positive efforts of officers and possibly boost moral. Public service is a thankless task, the public expect it as a service, in return for payment of taxes and levies. They may thank individuals, but don’t expect them to thank the organisation as a whole, that’s opening a can of worms! From my research it seems that most people agree with this sentiment, and the NYPD could have realised that if they had maybe asked someone outside of the PR team. This brings up the point of review. Before publishing, allow for a review process that takes in multiple perspectives. I'm sure there would have been someone within the NYPD, maybe even two people who could have predicted the backlash that the #MyNYPD would bring.

The NYPD and its employees have a myriad of twitter handles as can be seen from this twitter search. The one word that comes to my mind when perusing this list is EXPOSURE, lots and lots of potential exposure. The NYPD needs to assess whether or not their current social media guidelines are applicable to their push for widespread adoption of Twitter.