Cumbria Police and the power of quick-thinking communication

By James Bennett, Head of Content, Melcrum

If you've read and watched the news in the last 24 hours you'll have realised the UK has suffered a national tragedy. Yesterday, on June 2nd, a lone gunman spent three hours on the rampage in the sleepy town of Whitehaven in Cumbria in the North of England. In that time he indiscriminately killed 12 innocent bystanders before turning a gun on himself and ending his own life.

The last time Cumbria was in the news was in late 2009 when it suffered from severe flooding, while if you take a look at the Cumbria Constabulary website previous to yesterday's shootings, you'll notice the news covers minor stories including police dog training, traffic accidents and a call for new recruits. Not a lot happens.

On June 2nd at 10.35am, however, the Constabulary and its communications team were forced to react to a series of incidents no one could have predicted. They could have used traditional methods such as a standard press release or simply kept the information to themselves considering the sensitivity and impact of such a devastating crime, but instead the force was brave and creative enough to use very open and transparent channels that everyone could access, anywhere and at anytime. It was their actions and quick thinking that the people of Whitehaven will appreciate for the rest of their days.

As soon as the news came in of the first shooting, the team instantly accessed its Twitter account (@cumbriapolice) that had been virtually untouched and tweeted an update: "Urgent public message - Shots fired in Whitehaven http://bit.ly/bha4p0 #police"

In the next 24 hours it had tweeted 15 times with urgent information warning the public of the danger they faced, the name and a photograph of the suspect, a map of his route, a helpline for concerned relatives, names of some of the victims, and an online tribute book that anyone can contribute to. But the communication hasn't stopped there. The police force is continually tweeting updates for anyone interested or affected to read. You can now read these updates in real-time from anywhere in the world and from any form of readily available technology.

The Constabulary undoubtedly saved many lives during this tragic series of events, however the corporate world should take note of this ingenious use of Twitter that covered all the bases it could have possibly covered. Organisations should look to this as an extremely powerful example of intelligent and effective but cost-free and instant social media communication that any business can use to spread information to a wide and online-enabled audience.

Whoever was in charge of setting that up should be commended.

Our condolences go to all those affected by this terrible tragedy.

Comments

[David Romanis]

Great post and infinitely admirable response from the Cumbrian Police. Lessons all round after an horrendous incident.