Social media is an integral part of modern society and is used by billions of people worldwide. In a policing context, police services are starting to use social media platforms to interact with their communities. However, academic literature is lagging regarding the effectiveness of police use of social media. The purpose of this study is to gather public perceptions regarding the police’s use of social media particularly the use of Facebook.,The study administered a cross sectional survey recruiting participants who are policed by one of the larger police services in England and Wales. A total of 294 respondents completed the survey providing their views on their police service’s use of social media.,The results of the present study provide overwhelming support for the police’s use of social media by the public, with most respondents actively following their local police service’s social media accounts. The study additionally provides a number of important findings in relation to the preferences of the public with regards to their police service’s use of Facebook.,The findings presented here provide police services with an insight into how to implement an evidenced-based approach to their social media activity.,The present study takes an alternative approach to understanding the effectiveness of police social media use by simply asking residents, an approach not used in this area of policing research to date.

中文翻译：

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循证社交媒体的使用：英国对居民对警察使用Facebook的看法的探索性调查

社交媒体是现代社会不可或缺的一部分，全世界数十亿人正在使用它。在治安方面，警察部门开始使用社交媒体平台与其社区进行互动。但是，关于警察使用社交媒体的有效性，学术文献相对滞后。这项研究的目的是收集公众对警察使用社交媒体（尤其是Facebook）的认识。该研究进行了一项横断面调查，招募了受英格兰和威尔士较大警察之一监管的参与者。共有294位受访者完成了调查，就他们的警察使用社交媒体提供了自己的看法。本研究的结果为公众使用警察对社交媒体的使用提供了压倒性的支持，大多数受访者都积极关注其当地警察部门的社交媒体帐户。该研究还提供了许多有关公众对警察使用Facebook的偏爱的重要发现。此处提出的发现为警察提供了有关如何实施基于证据的社交方式的见解。媒体活动。本研究采用另一种方法，通过简单地询问居民来了解警察社交媒体使用的有效性，这是迄今为止在警务研究领域尚未使用的一种方法。