We were pleasantly surprised to see Police Commissioner Ellison Greenslade on Twitter and instantly followed him. These days, instead of waiting on the news or for the word to get around, we know almost instantly when an illegal weapon is taken off the streets, a suspect is arrested or members of the police force are treating some senior citizens to a fun day.
We’re not quite sure if he’s directly tweeting or has someone in charge of his account (would be pretty cool if he has an iphone in a gun holstr tho), but his decision to meet Bahamians where they are (on social media), brings the police force into the new age and realize the importance of technology in his work, is quite commendable and shows a great deal of accountability.
Commissioner Greenslade’s decision to join Twitter and tweet often, has garnered mixed reviews. There was a news story that aired a few weeks ago where a prominent lawyer and politician criticised the commissioner’s social media savvy and urged him to focus more on policing and not tweeting. While we never studied criminal justice, it’s clear to anyone who looks hard enough, that Bahamian social media has been so instrumental in the police’s work. Through videos and photos being posted, a great number of people suspected of crimes have been called to answer to them in court; through defamatory statuses and even some outrightly threatening someone’s life, people were arrested and charged for the crimes. A father posting a photo of himself playing with a gun around his son, a group of young men reportedly taunting another man with a knife and threatening to kill him, a former police officer allegedly having sex with underaged girls all made the rounds on social media, prompting police to act, got some people arrested and probably saved some lives. These are all situations that have proven how important social media is to police work. So why wouldn’t Commissioner Greenslade become a part of that?
We often complain about our leaders being a bunch of old heads who are out of the loop, but with 1,381 tweets and 821 followers (to date), we have Commissioner Greenslade debunking that myth and getting on our level. What do you think? Should Commissioner Greenslade put his phone down and stop tweeting or should he continue to be a part of our timelines (an IG account would be a blast too) and keep us informed?
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