Cops on Facebook

This morning's Wales on Sunday reports that North Wales Chief Constable, Richard Brunstrom has urged his officers to join Facebook. He says he wants to take "community engagement into cyberspace" in a bid to engage with young people.

The article quotes a survey that suggests that children would find it less intimidating to contact an officer via the internet rather than face to face. This of course depends on how good the community police officer is but nevertheless it is a valid way forward.

As it happens my local community constable is already on Facebook and is one of my Facebook friends, so in the spirit of all-Wales cyber comradeship I logged onto my profile this morning and searched for Richard Brunstrom so as to extend the hand of friendship to him. Alas, there was no profile to be found.

What I found instead was a series of Facebook groups that reflected the controversial status of the North Wales Chief Constable. The biggest of these groups with 281 members rather unfairly goes under the name of 'Richard Brunstrom is an arse'. Thirty eight people believe that 'Richard Brunstrom is spot on', whilst 31 proclaim that we should 'Legalise all drugs. Back up Richard Brunstrom'. Twenty people mysteriously believe that 'Richard Brunstrom is a turd', but the membership of the group that wants Richard Brunstrom to be Prime Minister is just one less at 19 and 16 people assert that the Chief Constable is a legend.

It continues with twelve members of a group who want Richard Brunstrom sacked and ten who believe that he is an absolute idiot. Seven people want to 'remove Richard Brunstrom' and nine people have joined a group dedicated to 'The Richard Brunstrom pension fund'. This last group was set up in response to rumours that the Chief Constable is to retire in sixteen months and encourages people to contribute so as to bring the date forward.

This post has not been written to knock Richard Brunstrom, after all in terms of the internet he has been a trailblazer amongst Chief Constables. He still maintains his blog here and understands the uses that the internet can be put to. Maybe when he gets around to setting up his own Facebook profile he will send me a friend request.