A British police force has joined Snapchat to connect with the youth

You might be used to following news and updates from law enforcement agencies on Twitter and Facebook, but now West Midlands Police in the UK has made the usual move of launching a Snapchat presence. It says it’s the first force in the world to utilize the network, enabling locals to keep up with its activities via disappearing photo and video updates. WMP is hoping to tap into Snapchat’s huge popularity with youngsters by adding its own account. “We’ve already got a massive following online and our messages are reaching half-a-million people on a daily basis,” says Keiley Gartland, from the Corporate Communications Department. “Part of this work is about connecting with younger people and helping them to feel they have a close connection with their local police force.”

Local and national police forces around the world have been using social media for a while already, with varying degrees of success. But one local UK police force is taking to a rather unlikely social network to better engage with the public. While the likes of Twitter, Facebook, Flickr and Instagram have long been used as public broadcasting platforms by many authorities, Snapchat has now emerged as an unlikely addition to this list. The UK’s West Midlands Police says it is the “first force in the world to join Snapchat”, and while that claim is difficult to verify, it’s certainly unusual to see a police force publicize itself on the ephemeral messaging service. “We’ve already got a massive following online and our messages are reaching half-a-million people on a daily basis,” explains Keiley Gartland, from the West Midlands Police Communications department. “Part of this work is about connecting with younger people and helping them to feel they have a close connection with their local police force.” There’s little question Snapchat is proving as popular – if not more so – than the more established social networking heavyweights such as Facebook, so this move does make sense. If you live in the ‘hood, you can search for ‘WestMidsPolice’ now on Snapchat, and it will be sharing photos via Snapchat’s Stories service every 24 hours. In terms of what you can expect to see, well, it will be from the force’s various departments, including the Cannabis Disposal Team, Traffic Unit, CID, neighbourhood officers and the Dogs Unit.