Police Chief uses social media for transparency

[Jaepheth]

“I’m Firing You! And Telling the World Your Sins—on Twitter!”
This powerful Dallas police chief has an unusual and very public way of disciplining wayward employees

Talk about public shaming, Internet-style…

Dallas Police Chief David O. Brown has fired or disciplined 27 officers and employees in the last year. And every time he brings down the hammer, he announces it on Facebook and Twitter, specifying exactly who the men and women are and what they did. On Dec. 30, it was five officers and a 911 call operator.

The posts to Facebook are multiple paragraphs long and explain the reason for each firing. Scroll through our spreadsheet to see the details, all of which we pulled from Facebook and Twitter.

Chief Brown is, as far as we know, unique among police chiefs in his use of social media. ”I’m unaware of anyone else doing this,” says Lt. Max Geron, who handles media relations at the Dallas Police Department. “If we weren’t the first, we were one of the first.”

We checked out the Twitter profiles of various departments around the country as well and couldn’t find a similar situation.

The social media posts aren’t an official policy of the DPD, but rather a “push for transparency” initiative, in Lt. Geron’s words. “[It comes from] a desire to be more transparent and to get our message out to the greater community,” he says.

We asked for more clarification on what gets dicey, but haven’t heard back. The only dicey reaction we’ve found is in relation to one of the Monday firings, but it’s about the firing itself and not the fact that it was publicized online. The Dallas Police Association is defending Officer Amy Wilburn’s using her weapon on an unarmed person, citing her involvement in a carjacking chase and saying, along with her attorney, that “she was in fear of her life.”

As seen above, the chief is sure to point out that even though the disciplinary actions have been taken, the employees in question have the right to appeal. But their full names are already out there, attached to these tweets. And no “allegedlys” are included.

Lt. Geron echoes Chief Brown’s comments on how the public announcements have been received among staff: “We’ve had some positive comments from officers and command sharing good thoughts.”

The first post in this initiative, started by Chief Brown, came in February 2011 regarding a police officer’s use of unnecessary force. Nine employees of DPD were fired that year. Then it was 12 in 2012, and 27 in 2013. The DPD employs 3,500 sworn officers, including recruits, and 4,051 total employees, including the 911 call taker Chief Brown mentioned over Twitter.
Officer Laura Martin, LGBT Liaison Officer for the DPD, receives her promotion badge from Police Chief David Brown in December 12, 2011.

In a ranking of the 50 most social media-friendly police departments in America’s largest cities for 2013, the DPD was named No. 1 by MPHProgramsList.com. Perhaps the best-known example of a police department using Twitter to actively inform the public in 2013 was the Boston Police Department during the marathon bombings in April. Thus far, they’ve stuck to advisories and pictures of training recruits, and haven’t ventured into disciplinary Twitter territory.

The @DallasPD account has sent a total of 6,605 tweets since its inception, and only 18 of these regard disciplinary announcements or terminations. So that’s less than 1 percent of the tweets, which also state holiday advisories and ask followers for information regarding burglary investigations. But the bulk of those terminated tweets were in 2013, and given that the total number of terminations went up that year as well, this trend may continue to grow in 2014.

We often see news stories about questionable police actions, and hardly ever see any consequences for poorly behaved police; I thought this was a nice change of pace.

[Zaune]

Isn't this kind of illegal in the United States, though?

[General Zod]

Isn't this kind of illegal in the United States, though?

If this were a normal company, yes. But given this is the police and everything the officers do is a matter of public record anyway? It's a tough call.

[Jaepheth]

Isn't this kind of illegal in the United States, though?

Best answer I could find:

...While it's not illegal to give the precise reason why you were fired, the reason must be truthful. Employers don't want to expose themselves to potential claims based on defamation, libel or slander...

Doesn't seem to be illegal for an employer to say why you were fired; it just can't be a lie.

[Zaune]

Oh. Right.

I should probably pass that link on to my wife.

[Rycon67]

Isn't this kind of illegal in the United States, though?

I don't know if it's illegal, but the Chief or anyone else would have to be careful about their wording perhaps. Even if an officer of civilian staff couldn't get his or her job back, they might be able to find something to get extra compensation from the city.

Though it is a valid point about keeping the public informed about the goings on in the department, especially showing that the department does actually at least try to deal with misbehavior. Despite a lot of police misbehavior or lack of disciplinary consequences, a lot of departments probably do more then the public realizes, just they don't mention it, or people only focus on the major high profile incidents like shootings, beatings, etc.

If one cop doesn't seem to get disciplined for a questionable shooting, nobody will care if half a dozen other officers in the same department are given a week long unpaid suspension for absenteeism related issues.