Surrey Police holds first Twitter meeting

Surrey Police officers in Woking have become the first borough in the county to hold a #WokingBeat live online Twitter panel meeting. Local residents were encouraged to tweet in any questions to the police and they received an immediate reply.

Sergeant Dave Griffiths hosted the meeting last month and was delighted with the response.

“We had 20 tweets during the evening, 18 tweets asking questions and two retweets. We increased our followers as a result of the meeting and we now have a total of 769. Using Twitter to communicate with local residents means we can reach different people and it’s also quick and easy to ask questions and get an instant reply,” he said.

The online session threw up a host of different questions ranging from what was the most common crime in Woking (theft) and who was the best person to deal with problem taxi drivers (police and Woking Borough Council). Someone also wanted to know if police officers went to London for the Olympics (No).

Sgt Griffiths said that based on the night’s success they were aiming to have more Twitter meetings with longer sessions.