Although literature on police use of social media is expanding, almost all previous research has focused on police services. Existing literature has not examined the social media communications of multi-jurisdictional police unions and other associations. Unions represent police members during collective bargaining. Multi-jurisdictional police associations represent a specific issue or demographic within policing. We examine Twitter use by multi-jurisdictional police unions and associations in Canada. Although we demonstrate that there is variation by type of organization, we nevertheless contend the central aim of these union and associations communications is to provide horizontal legitimacy spillover, legitimizing not only police officers across Canada but the police institution itself. In conclusion, we reflect on what these findings mean for literatures on police social media communications and police unions and associations.

中文翻译：

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加拿大警察工会和警察协会关于社交媒体和合法性溢出的沟通

尽管有关警察使用社交媒体的文献正在扩大，但几乎所有以前的研究都集中在警察服务上。现有文献没有研究跨辖区警察工会和其他协会的社交媒体传播。在集体谈判期间，工会代表警察成员。多辖区警察协会代表警务中的特定问题或人口统计。我们研究了加拿大多辖区警察工会和协会对 Twitter 的使用情况。尽管我们证明组织类型存在差异，但我们仍然认为，这些工会和协会沟通的核心目标是提供横向合法性溢出，不仅使加拿大各地的警察合法化，而且使警察机构本身合法化。综上所述，