Social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter played important roles in finding and capturing the Boston Marathon bombers last week, but a recent study says Swedish police lack the proper preparations should a similar terrorist threat happen in their own country.
In the study, Swedish police said they believed using social media would help them have better communication with young people. However, most of the people who follow and ‘like’ any of the 90 Facebook pages for various local and regional police forces throughout Sweden are between the ages of 25 and 59.
There is no proper administration in place for any of the Facebook pages dedicated to Sweden’s police forces, all of which are currently managed by enthusiasts and supporters rather than official police staff. There are no plans to change this in the near future.
In a questionnaire answered by about 4,200 users of Facebook about how they wanted their local police to use the social media site, 89 per cent wanted crime wave alerts, 90 per cent wanted general information and 82 per cent wanted to know more about the inner workings of the police. Nearly three quarters of those surveyed just wanted their local police to have a visible and available social media presence.