Smart cops with smartphones in smart cities: encounters between public servant and citizen
Abstract
In the quest to consolidate our empirical and conceptual understanding of smart cities it is necessary to consider the role of digital transformation programmes among various public service providers. This paper responds to... [ view full abstract ]
In the quest to consolidate our empirical and conceptual understanding of smart cities it is necessary to consider the role of digital transformation programmes among various public service providers.
This paper responds to questions around how smart applications are changing how public services operate, in particular focusing on how smart phones and social channels mediate relationships between police and public.
The distinctive contribution of the paper is to reveal the practices and underlying motivations of police officers who maintain an individual social media account for direct communication with local citizens. It comes at a time when forces are implementing large-scale smart transformation projects with new communication and reporting channels, and novel accountability technologies such as body-worn cameras. The rise of smart applications also coincides with relationships between police and public coming increasingly under strain.
Drawing on a recently developed framework for understanding front-line service encounters (Tummers et al 2015), the paper interrogates the ways in which police officers use their individual social media accounts to “move towards” local citizens. What are their motivations for such practices? How do corporate communications officers situate officer-citizen social media encounters within a wider landscape of smart transformation? The paper draws on in-depth interviews with 16 officers and police staff, and social-media text analysis of 20,000 related social media items, developing and validating a qualitative coding scheme relevant to online encounters. The results reveal a rich variety of practices including advice, “banter”, and informal warnings. Officers report a motivation to maintain a connection to local citizens made difficult by larger beats, fewer staff, closure of police stations and community tensions. At the same time, communications staff place little value on individual social media accounts, and harbour aspirations to consolidate, automate and mediate future encounters. However, the paper highlights the value of this under-acknowledged form of encounter through which relationships can be strengthened and new forms of human collaboration can be crafted (Maijer and Bolivar 2015).
Authors
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Stephen Jeffares
(University of Birmingham)
Topic Area
C3 - Smart Cities: A Global Comparative Public Management Perspective
Session
C3-02 » Smart Cities: A Global Comparative Public Management Perspective (11:00 - Thursday, 20th April, E.324)
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