Essex Police Twitter Accounts Mapped

This post was first made on my mike downes media website as it has a wider page width and maps will look better, it reads:

This interactive map has been produced from the public twitter list at Essex Police UK - Officers who tweet (time of writing 102 members, I've added the main force account too).

All pushpin locations are approximate based on what we can see in each twitter bio. The purpose of the map is to give a rough idea where the officers are located.

For example, there are 21 accounts labeled at Essex Police HQ, where in practice an account maybe tweeting about the whole county or a set of areas.

This map can be viewed on desktop, tablet or mobile (get the app, Android)

Method From the twitter list, create a spread sheet (in this case: name, location), create a new map, Import datasheet, adjust pushpins. Add another layer for the outline of Essex, adjust. And that's it.

There are no geographical locations to digital, so an officer tweeting about an issue in Loughton maybe just as appropriate in Clacton.

With twitter as the new telephone, and with a simple smart phone's power more than what sent a rocket to the moon - this post will start to exploit what can be done with technology.

This map is a beta demo and one step of many. Over the next few weeks, I will be working at how the police and the public can work together to make a modern day Public Community Safety Digital System that works. For me, that means using free software (google have only 100 free tools) and sharing ideas with open minded and innovative people.

  Essex Police officer tweets (not main force account).

  Tweets from https://twitter.com/EssexPoliceUK/lists/essex-officers-who-tweet