Exeter's Twitter PCSO is tweeting again
A member of police staff who claims she was told to stop using Twitter has returned to the micro-blogging site.
Police Community Support Officer (PCSO) Sarah Giles said it was "good to be back" after her Twitter exile, believed to have been prompted when University of Exeter Students' Guild complained about some of her tweets.
The officer, who regularly uses Twitter along with several colleagues to post 140-character messages covering incidents on her patch in Devon, put an abrupt end to her otherwise prolific tweeting last month.
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And earlier this week, the officer, who uses the handle @TopshamPolice in reference to the part of Exeter she covers wrote: "Thank you for all your support. I was told to close the account and cease tweeting. It upset me very much and is still being discussed RT :("
She returned to Twitter last night by writing "Coooeeee!!!! I'm back!!!!", adding a link to a blog post which said she had "swapped ideas" with police bosses.
She added: "Basically I can start boring you to tears with jokes about fowl play by geese on the estuary again!
"We all have, you'll be pleased to hear, learnt from recent experiences!"
The university confirmed this week that its students' union had "raised its concerns (to police) about whether some of (PCSO Giles's) tweets were appropriate".
In one tweet two weeks ago, Ms Giles wrote: "Lots of strong coffee needed tonight :-/ follow up calls to student who threw up in taxi and victims of wing mirror bashing £exeterfreshers", the latter understood to be a reference to first-year university students in the city.
Devon and Cornwall Police said the PCSO has not been "banned" from posting updates, but has instead been offered "training" about the content of her tweets.
In a statement, a police spokesman said training would be given to the PCSO "so she can better use social media in the future as an innovative communication tool".
"There is no doubt that social media is a very quick and effective means which can have pitfalls, but we are committed to ensuring staff have the knowledge and expertise wherever possible to use it properly," he said.
Comments
by The_Real_SKoM
Friday, October 05 2012, 6:05PM
“ginsterman1
100% have an opinion - are you sure?
I'm sure there is a significant percentage who don't give 2 hoots what a PCSO chooses to post on twitter.
When we were kids, twitter was either general noise made by birds (as opposed to a distinct song) or inane irelevant (normally irritating) chatter. I guess nothing much has changed since.”
by sweeney2010
Friday, October 05 2012, 4:35PM
“Frankly the PCSO ought to find better things to do with her time, but then PCSOs are not anything like real police officers however much they dress it up. If she must tweet, then surely it should be as topsham PCSO and not Topsham police. Too much conning the public that we have real coppers out there when in truth we have few supplemented by impersonators with Home Office approval.”
by Gambalungaboy
Thursday, October 04 2012, 5:56PM
“It looks like you will have to Google the links yourselves”
by Gambalungaboy
Thursday, October 04 2012, 5:50PM
“Not so long ago Exeter University used a version of a lager company's marketing material to promote itself. null
Not so long ago an Exeter University student died from a drinking binge. null
Other Exeter students have been lost as a result of alcohol abuse.”
by ginsterman1
Thursday, October 04 2012, 11:33AM
“re: themardler, i think you'll find that the pound sign should have been a hashtag which is a standard notation in twitter so nothing to do with a monetary prejudice or standard of student. Also she may be tweeting about her work but i cannot see where she reveals any information that is confidential, had she named specific names in reference to specific incidents then yes i would agree with you, however she hasn't. What she has done is engage the public of which more than 95% agree with what she is doing, you are one of the 5%!”
by czarchasm
Thursday, October 04 2012, 11:27AM
“Re - themardler's comment - no one is pre-judging student behaviour or being prejudiced against them. The PCSO's perfectly reasonable comments chimed with many people because it matches our own weary experience of students in the city, for year after year after year.”
by themardler
Thursday, October 04 2012, 11:02AM
“If my child was at university in Exeter I would be dismayed that its police force had an employee who was allowed to show prejudice against the student community. If prefacing Exeter freshers with a £ sign whilst making derogatory comments about drinking does not indicate a prejudiced opinion that Exeter students are privileged and prejudges their behaviour I would be very surprised. The employee in question needs retraining or dismissing. The whole matter of a PCSO tweeting about her work, which should be confidential, is disturbing.”