Twitter: the last fronteer in Brazilian public security

Marina Lemle also contributed

Public security discussions in 140 characters. Challenging? Apparently not. Welcome to the world of twitter, the social network has become a favorite of Brazilian internet users, and that includes the world of Brazilian public security.

Journalists and researchers have already embraced the medium, but the latest arrivals are individuals deeply involved and affected by everyday violence: police officers.

Law enforcement has always spoken through the press, but with blogs and twitter, public security professionals have shown growing presence and interest in interacting with twitter followers. Twitter posts described as micro-blogging, have helped to inject extra energy in personal blogs, circulating links to more extensive, quality content published in blogs.

Anabela Paiva, (left, photo taken from her twitter account) from Rio de Janeiro's Center for Studies of Security and Citizenship, CESeC, that belongs to Cândido Mendes University, agrees. She has co-authored a study on police blogs “Blogosfera policial: do tiro ao Twitter”, (Police blogsphere: from shots to twitter) and twitter particularly called her attention.

“Apparently most police officers use twitter, when it has to do with their work, to make their blogs more visible. Twitter's ability to quickly organize people around a topic has been important when the corporation organizes around professional demands” said Paiva. The study did not try to count how many officers use twitter, “the fact is most of them use micro-blogs as mere internet users, they are interested in many topics and often do not mention the fact they are officers or their ranks in their profiles,” added Anabela.

A platform for citizenship

Twitter has become a player in social issues around the world- it was vital during Barack Obama's presidential run in the US, and channeled protests against the elections in Iran. Twitter has also become a viable tool for Brazilian officers who use it to publish accusations, complaints and criticisms related to their work routines, pay, or wrongdoings.

Police officers use blogs and twitters in different ways, in their blogs they usually identify themselves, while twitter users easily stay anonymous, it requires no identification and writing itself is minimal.

'Soap mouth', a loose translation of Boca de Sabão (@bocadesabao) (right)  is one example, it is slang among police officers for gossip. It was launched in 2009 by four police officers who have chosen to remain anonymous, although one member spoke candidly about their motivation: “We wanted to take advantage of twitter's popularity, since there still seemed to be space for us. Blogs are pretty much saturated by now. Four people have the password of the Soap Mouth profile, but our group is actually much bigger if we count in our contributors, sources and the people who check up on denunciations,” said one of the anonymous officers.

Soap Mouth posts are from a number of sources, they come from daily lives of police officers, from emails – practically 50 a day – from people they know and stories published in the media. “We like to denounce higher ranking officers who extort money from low ranking officers, it’s outrageous. We also talk about the jogo do bicho, because many officers see it as a clean way of making money.” Boca de sabão has over 2,600 followers.

Police officers however do not use Twitter exclusively for criticism. Danillo Ferreira, a military police officer from Bahia has been twitting for a while. He started the Abordagem Policial blog along with other 3 police officers from his state, and he joined Twitter in April 2008. “Twitter for me was more about a possibility to interact with the public. Over time I understood how fast and simple it is. I ended up using twitter to help connect the police officer people know from the blog with me as an individual, as Danillo.” His profile danilloferreira includes posts on work and private life.

Twitter and the press

Twitter has been doing more, however, than simply voice the opinions of police officers – experienced journalists also found themselves faced with new dynamic, versatile side of the virtual world with great potential to be explored. Jorge Antonio Barros adjunct editor of the Rio de Janeiro section of Brazil’s O Globo newspaper, also hosts the Repórter do Crime Blog at Globo Online. “More than ever, we need to ‘tweet’, twitter is the chirp of those who are desperate, of the solitary, and of those who don’t give up on putting their voices at the service of a cause,” said Jorge de Barros.

Barros uses twitter in many ways. He sends out information through twitter and also uses it to check on information about violence, criminality, public security, justice and citizenship. Less obvious however, is his use of twitter to monitor the profiles of opinion makers and sources. “One of the advantages of collecting sources in Twitter is to get there before they do. I don’t just wait for them to use twitter, I go as far as to tease them into twitting,” said Barros.

Anabela Paiva stresses the importance of Twitter as a place to find sources. “Journalists also use social networks for it, which is extremely important, since in our CESeC research we have seen how hard it is for journalists to find sources other than the official ones.” Paiva believes that the percentage of civilians that access Twitter postings by police officers is still small, that these are mostly followed by journalists and security researchers. “Most still use the press as way to select the most relevant topics,” said Paiva.

Jorge Barros  (photo, speaking) still sees in Twitter a potential to create networks to protect individuals. “Any communications vehicle contributes to improving general security because security also involves communication. If people create their own protection networks through twitter, for example, we will already have evolved towards lowering our dependence on the quality of the public security administration. If the police is not able to efficiently protect people, they must look for the legal ways to do so. Information that is precise and delivered speedily is one of those things,” said Barros.

Photo caption: Journalist Jorge Barros speaking and CESeC researcher Silvia Ramos at a meeting on police blogs.

Barros has 3 Twitter profiles, @reporterdecrime provides updates from his blog in a less formal and more provocative tone. “I also have o @Noticiasda2016 e o @redecontracrime, the latter is a bit more pretentious, since its main objective is to create a network of internet users with the goal of exchanging information on dangerous situations for those of us who live in Rio, in real time,” said the journalist, blogger, twitterer.

What Barros expects of Twitter is that “it carry out the social role of bringing people together in the topic of violence in Rio de Janeiro.” It has generated enough of a social buzz that Barros must be happy with the results. And, in Paiva’s opinion, the trend is for discussions in the digital medium influence the public agenda, as far as the discussions on the web generate enough repercussions.

The big press looks at twitter however, for denouncements. According to the @bocadesabao police officers, some accusations posted on their strings have already lead to concrete results that would never have been possible in pre-twitter days. “Batallion commanders have stepped down because of accusations that began here and gained repercussion in the press”, said the officers. In their opinions, accusations and denouncements only yield results if they reach the media.

Twitter, Police and society

Paiva is optimistic about future interactions between police officers and civilians through internet networking tools. “There is great potential in terms of democratization and for raising the bar in terms of quality of services in how [the technology affects] relations between the police and society. When the day arrives that locals follow the twitter postings of the head of their neighborhood police station, or when locals use twitter to communicate directly with officers on the street, those interactions will bring with them an opportunity for real change in public security,” said Paiva.

The CESeC researcher alerts however, that public security administrators are under increased pressure to make themselves accountable to the public. Paiva also believes that such communication tools will also allow for greater power in mobilizing civilians to back security policies and to exert direct influence on how public opinion sees the authorities.

17% of bloggers and twitterers interviewed in a study that looked into police officers using social networking tools, said they saw their postings as a form of public service. “Clearly, Boca de Sabão provides a service to the public. We are telling people what the Military Police Force of the State of Rio de Janeiro really is, to people who would otherwise not have an opportunity to learn about it,” said the anonymous officers.

Excited by police officer participation in social networks, Danillo is certain. “No doubt about it. We are talking about ways the police can interact with society and vice versa. We express our opinions, we make demands, we complain about our working conditions. We provide society with answers on pending criticism. Twitterers are providing a hitherto unheard of opening of the communication policy of the Brazilian police forces.

Reprimands and compliments

As for those profiles that attack the police, Anabela Paiva sets them in context. “I would not say that the twits posted by anonymous officers are exactly going against their corporations, I think they may express a difference of opinion with the official line. Clearly institutions this large, with as many officers as the Military Police force will have a number of variations on point of view on many important subjects. It seems only natural to find this plurality of views posted on the internet,” said the researcher.

There are those who amass reprimands for their blog and twitter posts, and one such person is Wanderby Medeiros, a member of the Rio de Janeiro State Military Police Force. A dedicated blogger, he decided to create a twitter profile, @Wanderby on the 6th of February, 2009. Since then, Medeiros said, he has already received a written admonition from the corporation and has been punished because of his blog. “I think that police officers participating in networks, expressing opinions and interacting with other people is healthy for democracy and for an improvement of its institutions,” said Medeiros.

Danillo Ferreira, who belongs to the Military Police force of the state of Bahia however, has had a positive response from his superiors about his digital activism. After his posts on Twitter and in the blog Abordagem Policial he was complimented for his work by the commander-general who in turn decided to take advantage of his familiarity with internet for the benefit of the corporation. “He asked me to help start a blog and a twitter of the State Military police force, as well as utube and flickr,” said Ferreira.

The police twittersphere has potential to grow, since public security professionals are still learning about the internet tools and their uses.

Translated by Lis Horta Moriconi

Read Further:

The Police Blogsphere Study (In Portuguese), by CESeC

Police Blogs, in Portuguese:

Vozes desaquarteladas

Blog do Stive, de Robson Niedson, da Polícia Militar - Goiás

Abordagem policial, blog coletivo das polícias da Bahia

Diário de um PM, blog do Alexandre de Sousa

Journalist blog on crime, also in Portuguese:

Repórter de Crime, blog do Jorge Antonio Barros