Arlington Police Department joins Baltimore (MD) Police Department in first-ever joint tweetalong across state lines

The Arlington Police Department is proud to announce the first-ever joint tweetalong between the Baltimore (MD) Police Department and APD. Tweetalongs have become a regular occurrence for APD over the past year. The first tweetalong occurred in December 2011 with our DWI unit to raise awareness on driving while intoxicated dangers and enforcement efforts. Since then, the tweetalong concept, a virtual ridealong that places citizens in the driver's seat of a patrol car, has really taken off. Earlier this year, the Arlington Police Department was awarded the " Most Innovative Use of Social Media' by the Texas Center for Digital Government and was recently recognized with an award by the City of Arlington for the " Tweetalong - Virtual Ridealong.'

This upcoming cross-country tweetalong will occur on Friday, December 14, 2012 from 5 p.m. to 2 a.m. (CST). Baltimore Police Detective Jeremy Silbert and Sergeant Eric Kowalczyk will hit the streets of Baltimore at the same time that Arlington Officer Zhivonni McDonnell and Sergeant Christopher Cook begin answering calls throughout the city of Arlington. Baltimore will retweet APD and vice-versa throughout the shift. This will allow our followers to feel like they are a part of both tweetlongs at the same time, thereby increasing educational awareness and highlighting police operations between the two cities. Network affiliates plan to obtain sound from Baltimore Police leading up to this event. Baltimore is the eighth largest police department in the United States and they boast over 28,000 followers on their Twitter account @BaltimorePolice. This joint event will use hashtag #tweetalong and the Arlington Police Department's Twitter account is @ArlingtonPD.

Some interesting facts about tweetalongs:

• APD's use of tweetalongs were also featured at the 2012 Department of Justice-Community Oriented Policing Service conference. You can read more here.

• Sergeant Cook and Officer McDonnell have also served asguest speakers on the way the organization embraces social media at the Digital Government Summit which is a national conference of Information Technology professionals. Click here to read more.

• Japanese media flew to Arlington this past summer to cover a story on how tweetalongs work. Click here to read more.