Police Department Adoption and Deployment of Social Media, 2010

186 Pages·2017·2.95 MB·English

by  Paul Geary

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones
May 2016
#TheRightToRemainSilent: Police Department
Adoption and Deployment of Social Media,
2010-~2015
Paul Geary
University of Nevada, Las Vegas, [email protected]
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Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones. 2670.
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#THERIGHTTOREMAINSILENT: POLICE DEPARTMENT ADOPTION AND

DEPLOYMENT OF SOCIAL MEDIA, 2010-2015

By

Paul Geary

Bachelor of Arts – Political Science
University of Massachusetts at Lowell
1991

Master of Arts – Political Science
Northeastern University
1994

A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment
of the requirements for the

Doctor of Philosophy – Public Affairs

School of Environmental and Public Affairs
Greenspun College of Urban Affairs
The Graduate College

University of Nevada, Las Vegas
May 2016
Copyright 2016 by Paul Scott Geary
All Rights Reserved
Dissertation Approval
The Graduate College
The University of Nevada, Las Vegas

April 12, 2016
This dissertation prepared by
Paul Geary
entitled
#TheRightToRemainSilent: Police Department Adoption and Deployment of Social
Media, 2010-2015
is approved in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of
Doctor of Philosophy – Public Affairs
School of Environmental and Public Affairs

William Sousa, Ph.D. Kathryn Hausbeck Korgan, Ph.D.
Examination Committee Co-Chair Graduate College Interim Dean

M. Alexis Kennedy Ph.D.
Examination Committee Member

Paul Traudt, Ph.D.
Examination Committee Member

David Damore, Ph.D.
Graduate College Faculty Representative

ii
Abstract
Police have a complex myriad of ever-changing responsibilities and fluid expectations from the
public, and traditional media has performed a largely ambivalent self-appointed oversight and
agenda-setting function vis-à-vis police for decades. But in the last five years, the second wave
of the first new mass communications medium since the 1940s, social media, has democratized
both that oversight function as well as traditional media's agenda-setting ability. Meanwhile,
police have been characterized as slow to adapt to change and to adopt new practices in response
to a changing world. This work analyzed police agency social media adoption and explained the
rate at which United States municipal police adopted social media, the reasons that they did so
and for what purpose through the lens of Everett Rogers' diffusion of innovations theory. Based
on a survey of police chiefs and administrators with media responsibility, this research
demonstrated that police were not slow to adopt social media, but did so in keeping with what
diffusion of innovations theory would have predicted. Larger departments (with more resources)
adopted social media earlier than smaller departments. Smaller departments used social media
somewhat differently than did larger departments, in keeping with the concept of reinvention.
Other factors such as age of the chief (which is not an aspect of diffusion of innovations theory
but has been demonstrated to be a factor among the general public) and education level of the
chief was less explanatory. Chiefs and media professionals at all levels professed an intense
distrust of traditional media and a wide belief that social media was an effective tool for both
public and non-public facing tasks, but distrust of the media did not necessarily correlate to a
more positive view of social media or the degree to which police embraced the inherent
interactivity of social media. A longitudinal content analysis of Facebook posts by police
departments demonstrated that from 2010 to 2014, a shift from crime news and general
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information to a public relations focus had occurred, and that from 2014 to 2015, perhaps in
response to current events such as police-involved shootings and public backlash to that, there
was a further shift toward community interest posts at the expense of crime news. Public
response as measured by the number of followers and likes of particular posts demonstrated that
there was strong resonance to stories posted by police departments that had emotive qualities in
2015.

iv
Acknowledgements
There are a number of people who have had an influence on my intellectual and
professional development over the years and I defer to attempt to list all of those people for fear
that I leave somebody out. I've been fortunate that there are that many, and please know that I
appreciate all of you.
Of those who have had a direct positive influence on this work in particular, I would like
to thank the members of my dissertation committee who patiently endured my fits and starts in
the writing of this work. I would especially like to thank the chair, Dr. Bill Sousa, whose
countenance, both academic and pragmatic, was invaluable. I'd like to thank Dr. Paul Traudt,
whose intellectual rigor kept me honest. I'd like to thank Dr. Alexis Kennedy, who challenged
my beliefs just about every minute that I spent in her class, and Dr. David Damore, who was the
first statistics teacher at any level who got me to actually understand statistics.
I'd like to thank Professor Dean Bergeron of UMass-Lowell, who 25 years ago planted a
seed and prompted me as an undergraduate to think this would be an endeavor both worthwhile
and doable. I'd like to thank Michael Armini (currently busy increasing the value of my Master's
Degree at Northeastern University as Vice President of Communications) who 10 years ago
wisely steered me to pursue the fulfilling perhaps at the expense of the lucrative, and as Emerson
said, that has made all the difference. And of course I'd like to thank my partner in life Michael
Herwig, who is the only person who endured every day of every facet of the process.
Finally I'd like to thank the roughly 240 police professionals who took the time to fill out
the survey that comprised a significant segment of this research. The number and thoughtfulness
of the responses was truly gratifying.

v
Dedication
To my partner Michael Herwig, without whose encouragement and patience this
undertaking never would have happened.

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Table of Contents
Abstract ........................................................................................................................................ iii
Acknowledgements ...................................................................................................................... v
Dedication .................................................................................................................................... vi
List of Tables ............................................................................................................................. viii
List of Figures ............................................................................................................................... x
Chapter 1 Introduction ................................................................................................................ 1
Chapter 2 Literature Review ....................................................................................................... 7
Chapter 3 Theory Application and Methodology ..................................................................... 49

Chapter 4 Findings, Survey....................................................................................................... 70

Chapter 5 Findings, Facebook Post Content Analysis .............................................................. 89

Chapter 6 Discussion .............................................................................................................. 100

Appendix A: Survey Format as Seen by Respondents ............................................................ 126

Appendix B: Survey Questions by Dimension ........................................................................ 135

Appendix C: Narrative Quotient Scale Factors ....................................................................... 137

Appendix D: Methodology Chart of Research Questions and General Hypotheses ............... 139

Appendix E: Facebook Content Analysis Post Coding ........................................................... 141

References ................................................................................................................................. 142

Curriculum Vitae ...................................................................................................................... 173

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List of Tables
Table 1. Police use of Facebook in 2010 ................................................................................. 25
Table 2. Social Media use by 20 U.S. police departments, 2010 and 2013 ............................. 42
Table 3. Survey response statistics .......................................................................................... 65
Table 4. Survey results, use of social media by police departments in 2015 .......................... 70
Table 5. Police department social media adoption by size of city served ............................... 71
Table 6. Mean age of the chief in each city size group ............................................................ 72
Table 7. Correlation analysis by city size; early adoption of social media by
age and education of the chief holding each other constant ................................... 73
Table 8. Earliest reported social media adoption (Facebook or other) among
departments with a social media presence .............................................................. 73
Table 9. Utilization of the International Association of Chiefs of Police
Center for Social Media .......................................................................................... 77
Table 10. Correlation of age and education of the chief to regularity of use
of the IACPCSM ..................................................................................................... 78
Table 11. Department perceptions of media fairness and receptivity to public
comment on social media........................................................................................ 80
Table 12. Percent of departments reporting using Facebook and other social
media to perform investigative and surveillance tasks ........................................... 83
Table 13. Police chief/media leader belief in the effectiveness of Facebook
and other social media for investigation and surveillance, percentages ................. 84

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