New York Cops Forced To Attend Twitter School

New York precinct captains are getting mandatory training on how to use social media.

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The course is designed to prevent embarrassments like a tweet sent by Capt. Thomas Harnisch of Harlem last month in which he made light of the death of a woman who fell onto the subway tracks at Union Square while using an iPad.

“Let me guess, driver’s fault right?” he wrote over his personal account in a tweet directed at a safe-streets advocacy group.
Blasted by a group member, he wrote on the official precinct account: “Isn’t that exactly what you do? Seize on a tragedy and assign culpability having no facts?”

He later apologized.

The NYPD suffered its biggest Twitter fail in April, when it began a p.r. campaign urging the public to post photos of the city cops with the hashtag “#myNYPD.”

Users instead posted images of police brutality.

Zachary Tumin, the NYPD’s deputy commissioner for strategic initiatives, said social media can be a tool for cops.
“It’s an opportunity for commanding officers . . . to share news while engaging with the people whom she or he serves,” he said.[su_sky_ad]

D.B. Hirsch

D.B. Hirsch is a political activist, news junkie, and retired ad copy writer and spin doctor. He lives in Brooklyn, New York.