Pompey Police are Top of the Tweets (and Fareham Police on Twitter now too!)

Hampshire Constabulary's Portsmouth team have topped the list of UK's tweeting officers in a recent competition which pitted over five hundred police Twitter users against each other to find the most popular and engaging police tweeters.

The National Police Improvement Agency's Nick Keane (@NickKeane), who advises police forces on engagement through social media said:

"For the last two years I have been capturing the UK police officers who use Twitter and listing them on my twitter page. The question posed by me on Twitter was to ask who people thought was the officer who was making the best use of Twitter. They had to be identifiable, representing their force and using Twitter to engage with their community. It was great to see people nominate their colleagues but even more heartening to see the people from their community of followers nominating and praising their police officers."

The competition ran entirely on Twitter in July, with all users able to nominate their local team and give a reason why. The result was very close, but Portsmouth City Unit Police (@PompeyCCUPolice) were the overall winners.

PC Mark Walsh from Portsmouth City Centre Unit Police tweeted this to me:

'Times change and in order to keep in touch with our communities so must we. The wall of silence once put up by police has fallen. We don't have force issued Blackberries so we actually all use our own mobiles showing our commitment! We tweet on the beat - and even tweet off duty to keep the engagement with our followers going. We understand not all sections of the community use social media so its an addition  to our 'tools' not a replacement. We didn't receive any training other than on the job - trial and error with the full support of the constabulary!"

Portsmouth's Sergeant Rob Sutton and his team have almost 3,000 followers and tweet on all police related themes from crime prevention to the more light humoured, such as asking their followers to suggest names for their Transit van - the winner being 'Ni-Nah' of course.

Day-to-day the team keep their followers up to date with what's happening in the city centre, including promoting the lost child scheme, the Policing Through The Ages event, arrests of shoplifters and providing reassuring updates about police activity in the area. Most importantly, the information isn't a one way broadcast – the team answer questions and have conversations with their followers.

Mark added in his final Tweet to me: "My first interview via twitter! A further example of how social media can bring public officials in reach."

PompeyCCUPolice were the first from Hampshire Constabulary to join Twitter, and the force now has 31 teams, units or individuals using the site - including two of our local teams, new to Twitter: @FarehamPolice and @PortchesterSNT. Follow them for all the latest local policing news and updates.