UK Police on Twitter up 69% What will come next - Live Social Video?

data set

UK Police official accounts have been on Twitter since 2009/10 (with West Midlands signing up 15 Dec 2008).

This post looks at twitter followers from Aug 2013 to Aug 2015 and how there's been a 69% follower increase in the past year.

So what happens next? Are the Police and the Public content with text, images and links or could there be more?

If there is another lever then video will have something to do with it. In the past five months we've seen the Police using Periscope too - easy to broadcast from a mobile, but only a day till they expire (unless some save and upload elsewhere, like youtube).

Twitter does offer video itself, but not Live - and of course I have a few posts about the new Blab four person live video with chat (link to search label: blab).

YouTube have also released a new Live Streaming experience at live_dashboard - there are two options: Live (with encoder) and Hangouts. Also look out for some new Samsung mobiles and Wirecast Go (asking for iPhone testers) that can stream live to youtube from mobile.

From an idea I'm calling Public Service Police Talk Radio, I'm looking at gathering what we know know so far and project a tiny step into the future.

There are two areas that top the list for me: Mobile and Video, with the third being a Realtime Conversation.

I'm thinking about designing that experience free of any platform, but rather focussing on each element like: user video, text chat, images and people (whether the police or the public).

There are many topics (like Road Safety) that can be a local, national and global topic. For example, texting and driving causes accidents, so when a Police tweet or live broadcast happens, then all will benefit. This is the real beauty of the internet - we can produce just one message, yet be seen worldwide.

I've made a few demo demos, this one below look at combining live video with a live twitter feed of 50 UK Police twitter accounts. The host could be anyone, the screens arranged however we wish. I've used a few tools to make this happen (help videos available on my channel).

Those 50 twitter accounts are also embedded below and update in realtime, you can subscribe to the list if you wish. The UK Police on Twitter google sheet is at: data set (opens in google sheets).

By the way, the first ever Police Radio was used in 1969 - and yes by the British Police.

That's it - will edit as I gather ideas and tests ..

Tweets from https://twitter.com/mikedownesz/lists/uk-police-on-twitter1