back to article Met trades truncheons for Twitter

The Metropolitan Police has turned to Twitter to help control an upcoming Climate Camp protest in London. After the robust policing of the G20 protests caused controversy and was blamed for one death, the Met has clearly decided that confusing and boring protestors into submission is a much less dangerous strategy. The feed …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Stop

    Advice from a techie!

    Don't follow them, unless you want them to follow you (openly or not) this clearly has more to do with intelligence gathering and misinformation than informing of operational updates.

    As for putting a woman officer in charge, from my experience with met officers in protests, the women officers are usually more macho than the men.

  2. Avalanche
    WTF?

    Twitter usage?

    I don't use twitter and I hardly know people that use Twitter. Who on Earth actually thinks this will be effective (as in reaching enough of the intended target)?

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Down

    I hate ...

    ... being followed by the police!

  4. Steve Davies 3 Silver badge
    Big Brother

    Has to be said

    Twitter users are 'twits'.

    Personally, I think that twitter 'followers' are akin to those who read celeb mags like Hello.

    Get a life, try thinking for yourself and don't try to be like a (mostly) 3rd rate celeb.

    Twitter. Another way for BB (aka Uk Gov) to watch your every move.

  5. Anony mouse
    Megaphone

    macho policing

    put a woman in charge..

    not forgetting there was a female officer (do we still call them WPCs) in charge the day an innocent brazilian had the contents of his skull displayed for all to see on a london underground train..

    so much for the fairer sex then huh.. or maybe Cecilia Dick has a.. well.. penis

  6. Jason Bloomberg Silver badge
    Grenade

    The gentle female touch

    "the operation to police the camp is being overseen by a female officer, which is being seen as part of an effort to shake off the macho policing accusations recently levelled at the Met"

    Ms Cressida Dick ? Said by the Met to have done a superb job while overseeing the operation which led to the killing of Charles de Menezes. Subsequently promoted twice, despite being criticised by the IPCC for her lack of clarity as Gold Commander.

    Of course, one must not tar all women with the same brush, and not all coppers are bastards.

    It should be interesting to compare IndyMedia and Met Twitter blow-by-blow accounts of events as they unfold on the day.

  7. SmallYellowFuzzyDuck, how pweety!
    FAIL

    Cool, Twitter, not

    It's like blogging, everyone types away on it telling us what they had for lunch, but no one is reading...

    Can we have a "Meh" icon El Reg?

  8. Joe K
    Big Brother

    Heres some advice

    Don't show up.

    It'll be fun to see a bunch of up-for-it hippies milling about bored, while 10,000 journalists wander around desperately trying to photograph anything, even someone knocking over a wheelie bin.

  9. asiaseen

    New whitepaper

    Perhaps you could revise the whitepaper currently advertised at the bottom of this article -

    "PC-disable offers client-side protection"

  10. Charlie Clark Silver badge
    Terminator

    The future of policing?

    Übermert@Twatotron - you're nicked!

    Twatotron@Übermet - all right, gov. It's a fair cop and all that. Can I call my PR adviser?

  11. Anonymous Coward
    Joke

    Why must El Reg waste these people's precious time?

    Dear Sirs,

    I am deeply upset that the fine folk above had to waste their precious time typing up a comment to your publication, expressing their disdain for twitter.

    Why, oh why, oh why, can't you provide some form of one click link to add a "meh, this doesn't interest me" comment.

    Yours,

    Miffed of Middle England

    </letter to the times>

    There is of course, the option that these whinging sods could just not bother reading, then clicking through and commenting on, and stories they see which mention twitter. ;-)

  12. Elmer Phud
    Black Helicopters

    Character limits have thier uses after all

    At least they won't be able to Tweet a caution at you as the modern version is far too long. The original "You're nicked, sunshine" may make a return.

  13. James 61

    Re: Advice from a techie!

    If this was really about intelligence gathering why would they publiclly declare who they are? It's not as if they don't monitor all communications anyway and they can just setup fake twitter accounts which would no doubt be more effective for gathering intelligence.

  14. Anonymous Coward
    Megaphone

    The Police

    >The police add, "If you follow us on Twitter we will <not> automatically follow you back.<

    and then kick in your door at 5am and nick you, nice and quiet like.

    Do you trust the 21st century police force?

  15. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Won't work anyway

    Since they've used up their entire 2009 literacy allocation on the press release.

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