The Met Police, Twitter and blogger engagement

I posted a while back about comments made to PR Week by the Met Police's corporate comms manager, Dick Fedorico, about their plans for online monitoring and engagement.

Well, in advance of this year's Climate Camp the Met has signed u to Twitter to provide real-time updates on their actions during the week long Camp.

But, take a look a look at their Twitter policy:

"Official CO11 Met Police channel. Please note we cannot respond to messages via Twitter. Read our Twitter policy at www.met.police.uk/webinfo/twitter.htm"

So..... the Met is using Twitter to disseminate information, but isn't prepared to listen to what people have to say.

There's some additional confusion as in a Guardian article a spokesperson says that only people who follow the Met's Twitter feed will have access to updates. But currently their feed is public so anyone can view their feed.

Well, actually; I say 'feed' but there seems to be two identical Met feeds:

1. http://twitter.com/C011MetPolice
2. http://twitter.com/CO11MetPolice

It'll be an interesting case to follow and see how it works.

Tags: Met Police, CO11, Twitter, Climate Camp