From Ashton Kutcher to Starbucks to the White House, social media tools are being used by everyone who’s anyone these days. Joining the growing crowd is the Dallas Police Department (DPD). The Dallas Morning News reports that the department will soon be disseminating information through the microblogging service Twitter.
In an interview with the paper, DPD spokesman Lt. Andy Harvey said, “We want to keep our citizens informed of what’s going on in our city and how it can be used as a crime fighting tool.”
In addition to using Twitter, the police department will be using another platform called Nixle to send alerts via the web or text messages. Similar to Facebook and Twitter, Nixle is considered to be a more “standardized, secure and certified communication platform.”
DPD plans to send out crime alerts, meeting notices and event information. According to the paper, other major police departments that have started using Twitter include the Baltimore Police Department and the Boston Police Department.