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Tweet beat: NYPD embraces Twitter, precinct councils slower to adopt

Tweet beat: NYPD embraces Twitter, precinct councils slower to adopt
Community News Group / Max Jaeger

Please state your emergency — in 140 characters.

Police precincts around the city have been using Twitter since the beginning of the year, but precinct community councils — the civilian groups who act as a go-between for residents and cops — have been slower adopt the social media platform, which allows users converse and share information through publicly posted, 140-character messages.

Only one council in Brooklyn — the 78th Precinct council covering Park Slope — uses the tool. The Slope civic jumped on the Twitter bandwagon back in 2012 — well before individual precincts began adopting the outlet — because it wanted to use every avenue possible to get information to the public, said the group’s honcho.

“We want as many inclusive forms of communication as possible — we have a listserv, Google Group, Twitter, and Facebook,” said 78th Precinct Community Council president N. Wayne Bailey, whose group had 654 followers and tweeted 3,097 times at press time.

The tech-savvy civic aims to live-stream its meetings with cops using another program called Periscope, he said. It’s still working out the legality of broadcasting public meetings from the precinct station house where they are held, but Bailey believes there are strong grounds for bringing cameras into neighborhood cops’ inner sanctum.

“I believe that the open meeting law applies to precinct council meetings, and if that law applies, then you’re allowed to video,” he said.

Presidents of other civilian council groups said they aren’t focusing on Twitter because it won’t reach the broadest audience.

“There’s still people who are older that don’t even have an e-mail address to reach out to,” said 60th Precinct Community Council president Shelly Smith.

Another council’s mailing system is working fine for now, according to its head.

“We have one of the most comprehensive e-mail systems in the city — more than 2,000 people,” said Ilene Sacco, who leads the 68th Precinct’s civilian civic. “We get information out.”

Sacco conceded you can’t have too many avenues to reach people, but said community council Twitter accounts would just duplicate precincts’ efforts.

“The more people you reach with information, the better,” Sacco said. “But do people need to get six of the same tweet?”

The police department has been on Twitter since the late aughts with the handle @NYPDnews, but Commissioner Bill Bratton recently told commanding officers citywide that they had to add the application to their individual precincts’ media arsenal.

The tool has its pros and cons, but it’s mainly been a boon, according to a Bay Ridge commander.

“It has worked well for us as far as traffic advisories and good arrests,” said 68th Precinct commanding officer Capt. Raymond Festino, whose precinct has 2,373 followers and had tweeted 109 times at press time. “Obviously we get negative feedback,” he said. “But mostly, it’s positive.”

His chief hurdle is juggling his duties as Bay Ridge’s top cop while keeping an eye on the information his precinct tweets, he said.

“I can’t give it to just anyone in my precinct — I have to have control,” said Festino,

But the precinct also faces a struggle familiar to all Twitter users, Festino said.

“I want more followers,” he said.

In the event of an emergency, you should always call 911, police said.

Reach reporter Max Jaeger at mjaeger@cnglocal.com or by calling (718) 260–8303. Follow him on Twitter @JustTheMax.