In the Netherlands Police uses?the internal Politie+, a?kind of Facebook for the police. In the USA a similar service was launced recently: Blueline Connect. If it were up to founder Bill Bratton, it will be used internationally as well. First two videos about Blue Line in which the essence of the social media platform is explained:
In the movie below, Bill Bratton himself provides some explanation and we can hear what their users have to say:
Within the BlueLine platform there are?plenty of communication opportunties, just?like Facebook and Politie+. Of course, this internal environment is not intended to exchange family pictures, but it is related to the police profession. There are groups in which tips are exchanged about for example?police equipment, as in this example below a discussion on the use of bodycams:
But the platform enables other forms of communication, such as a video chat where agents can participate in a closed Google Hangout-like service even from the streets using their iPhone:
“Many officers get clothing allowances on equipment and uniforms, so there’s that market,” Bratton noted. Bratton says he also wants law enforcement agencies outside of the U.S. to join (so far it’s just domestic).?Bratton Technologies, which was founded earlier this year, is?venture backed?to the tune of $1.4 million, with Bratton also putting in an undisclosed amount of his own money.
Will it work? Steve Ward, who spent 13 years a member of a Seattle SWAT team, and is now the founder of?Vievu, a body-worn camera for police and security, is in favor of officers sharing best policing practices. Ward says there are more than 15,000 police agencies operating in the U.S., and “the more we can link these people to understand and share training and best practices, the better.” His only concern is what kind of information BlueLine is gathering on officers.
Security and privacy consultant Jim Fenton says it’s up to BlueLine to build a sense of trust with its online community to quell those fears. That means transparency. “Contrast this with Yammer where users feel like their data is being mixed with all sorts of other things. I would hope that [isn’t how ] BlueLine deals with issues like public records retention. Here in California at least, there are various statutes that require retention of public records for a year or two.”
Sources: Mashable, BlueLineConnect, Wikipedia,?Huffington Post, FastCompany