Pursuing the Promises of Social Media? Changes in Adoption and Usage of Social Media by the Top 10 Police Departments

Abstract

Recent academic literature highlights the potential benefits of social media use by government agencies, such as police departments (PDs). This study builds on previous work to explore whether and how the top 10 U.S. police departments changed their social media use between two points in time. To do this, we examine what, if any, changes have occurred in PDs' use of social media, their use of it for interaction, as well as their use of the platforms for dialogic communication. Our findings suggest that there is change, yet the change is slow and not always in the direction of hype.