During any given police shift, you might find an officer on Twitter writing about a crash or providing an update about a critical incident. It's oftentimes official and part of the growing Twitter phenomenon. In North Texas, the Arlington Police Department coined the Tweetalong term to signify a virtual ride-along. The Denton Police Department was one of the first local agencies to tweet active calls that officers are working to show the volume of calls they handle in a shift. Whether tweeting police calls or sending Twitter messages from the passenger seat of a patrol vehicle, it is becoming common practice for law enforcement all over the world. To signify that growth, law enforcement agencies are hosting a Global Tweet-a-thon Friday, March 22. It is believed that as many as 100 law enforcement agencies from around six countries will participate in this event. This Google Map shows the agencies across the world on Twitter.

On Friday, March 22 anytime after 8 a.m. for a 24-hour period, various agencies around the world will participate in the Tweet-a-thon, which is law enforcement agencies tweeting calls. In each tweet, expect to see #POLTWT for police tweet. In Arlington we will also use #TWEETALONG since that is our usual hashtag for these events. We'll conduct our Tweetalong from 6 p.m. until 2 a.m. with Officer Zhivonni McDonnell, Sergeant Christopher Cook and Assistant Chief James Hawthorne. The group will jump from call to call throughout the city, tweeting photos, video and messages about what they encounter.

Media Event: To announce the participation of multiple North Texas law enforcement agencies in the Global Tweet-a-thon, the Arlington Police Department will host a news conference on Tuesday, March 19, at 1 p.m., that will double as a traditional news conference and virtual news conference. Multiple North Texas police agencies participating in the Global Tweet-a-thon are expected to join us, including Denton Police Department, Fort Worth Police Department, and Grand Prairie Police Department. At the same time as the officials are speaking about the Global Tweet-a-thon, there will also be a virtual news conference taking place in the APD Media Office where questions tweeted by people will be answered by a bank of communication officers/employees who will be responding by smart phone, tablet or laptop computer. By promoting the news conference days before the event, we'll hopefully get a good online response and have plenty of questions. The idea is that a combined traditional and virtual news conference will build our Twitter audience for the upcoming Global Tweet-a-thon.

Upcoming Twee-a-thon Events

• Tuesday, March 19, at 1 p.m.- Traditional and Virtual news conference (open to all Media)
  • Friday, March 22, anytime in the 24-hour period starting at 8 a.m.- Global Tweet-a-thon (contact local agencies about their times and participation…APD will conduct Tweetalong from 6 p.m.-2 a.m.)