Social Media Policies
Category: Law Enforcement
Gordon Graham here with Today’s tip from Lexipol. And Today’s Tip is a topic we’ve covered several times before. But as I travel around this great country of ours, I continue to hear about personnel getting in trouble with social media.
A Social Media Policy can place reasonable limits on what you can and cannot post on social media.
Almost everyone today is active in some form of social media (except me, of course—I’m a dinosaur). It seems that social media sites are constantly evolving. As soon as everyone got on to MySpace, then everyone moved to Facebook. Once everyone got on Facebook, everyone moved on to Twitter. Once everyone got onto Twitter, everyone moved on to Instagram. And on, and on.
As public safety personnel, we take a lot of pride in our work. You may want to share what you do with friends and family through social media. Sometimes you run into humorous situations on the job and think it would be funny to post the situation on a social media site. Before you post anything work-related, make sure you know your agency’s Social Media Policy.
When we first started doing Today’s Tips on social media several years ago, most public safety agencies didn’t have social media policies. I believe most agencies now have such a policy in place. For sure if your agency is a Lexipol subscriber, you have an extensive, legally sound Social Media Policy. Some of you may not even realize that your agency has a Social Media Policy. A Social Media Policy can place reasonable limits on what you can and cannot post on social media. Do you know your agency’s Social Media Policy inside and out?
Despite what some think, social media policies are not intended to infringe on free speech or to censor an individual’s ability to express themselves. Social media policies actually help protect employees and their agencies.
Make sure you know what your agency’s policies are.
And that is Today’s Tip from Lexipol. Gordon Graham signing off.