Content area
Purpose
Police services, police associations and police foundations now engage in philanthropy and these efforts are communicated using social media. This paper examines social media framing of the philanthropic and charitable work of police in Canada.
Design/methodology/approachDrawing from discourse and semiotic analyses, the authors examined the ways that police communications frame contributions to charity and community’s well-being. Tweets were analyzed for themes, hashtags and images that conveyed the philanthropic work of police services, police associations as well as police foundations.
FindingsThe authors discovered four main forms of framing in these social media communications, focusing on community, diversity, youth and crime prevention. The authors argue that police used these communications as mechanisms to flaunt social capital and to boost perceptions of legitimacy and benevolence.
Research limitations/implicationsMore analyses are needed to examine such representations over time and in multiple jurisdictions.
Practical implicationsExamining police communications about philanthropy not only reveals insights about the politics of giving but also the political use of social media by police.
Originality/valueSocial media is used by organizations to position themselves in social networks. The increased use of social media by police, for promoting philanthropic work, is political in the sense that it aims to bolster a sense of legitimacy.
Introduction
In the social media age, practices of police image management have moved online. Like many large organizations, police now attempt to curate public views of their work using Twitter and Facebook (Wood, 2020; Bullock, 2018; Meijer and Thaens, 2013). Nearly all police services across the USA have adopted social media and there are multiple kinds of messages posted on police social media pages (Hu et al., 2018). Public police in Canada are no exception to this trend of social media use by criminal justice agencies. It is crucial to investigate how public police are using social media. Twitter posts (tweets) made by police not only contain information about police work but also community events, youth programs and fund-raising initiatives. Since social media messaging shapes public opinion, research is needed to examine the meanings of these communications.
Not all police social media communications are about accidents or missing persons. Public police now engage in philanthropy and depict these efforts in digital realms using visual media. We define philanthropic work as police departments, associations and foundations engaging in events and work to promote the welfare of the general public and raise funds for community groups. While representations of police brutality such as incidents of choking (i.e. George Floyd and Eric Garner) or shooting (i.e. Matthew Dumas and Tamir Rice) often go viral, charitable actions by police are intended to demonstrate they still care about people. We examine social media communications about police philanthropy to assess the manifest and latent meanings encoded.
There is a literature study on the agendas that lead to philanthropic giving and fundraising by large organizations (Eikenberry and Mirabella, 2018; Goss, 2016; Farrell, 2015; Wilson, 2014), revealing that motivations for giving or fundraising are not purely altruistic. The goal of philanthropy is to capitalize on social connections or to benefit from the association with the donee or the act of giving (Nickel, 2018; Kuldova, 2018; McGoey, 2012; la Cour and Kromann, 2011). Large organizations turn to social media to advertise their philanthropic work to boost their public perception and legitimacy (Guo and Saxton, 2018). As Bornstein (2009) noted, the impulse of philanthropy or charity is almost always to boost social or cultural capital. Philanthropy creates a set of shadow relations whereby the receiver of the gift then experiences an obligation or an expectation to give back in some way (Copeman and Banerjee, 2020). It is important to examine whether police social media messaging about philanthropy serves a similar function in the criminal justice sector and to what extent this is similar or different than what occurs in other fields of fundraising and charity.
First, we review the literature on police use of social media. Second, we offer a note on sampling and how we applied discourse and semiotic analysis to our data. Third, we present our analysis. Tweets were analyzed for images, hashtags [1] and themes that conveyed the philanthropic acts of police services, police associations and police foundations. We examine the ways that police communications frame their activities as contributions to charity and community’s well-being. We argue that police use these communications as techniques to flaunt social capital and to boost perceptions of legitimacy and benevolence. Following Lupton (2020), we also examine the affective relations and affinities created by police images posted on Twitter. In the discussion, we assess what our findings mean for literature studies on police use of social media and police legitimacy.
The literature and theoretical framework
The social media society
Digital media has moved to the center of our social world (Stadler, 2018) so much that online representations precede our material encounters with people. The power to create representations is the power to reorient one's vision of reality. Public police have attempted to harness the potential of social media as a communication tool (Schneider, 2016; Trottier, 2012). Large organizations like police departments are adopting social media to communicate with the public (also see Kilburn and Krieger, 2014). Social media can augment an organization's position in social networks and enhance its sense of authority among audiences (Anstead and Chadwick, 2018; Langlois, 2015).
Images such as photos posted on social media are not static. Such images can be interactive and can also have manifold effects (Usher, 2009). Similarly, graphics used in social media communication can be used as a form of rhetoric to alter public perceptions. Social media pictures and videos should be seen as more than representations. Videos posted on social media have the capacity to align people together against others (Lupton, 2020) in ways we examine below. As there is no requirement to consult contrary opinions, Twitter can also augment biases (Usher et al., 2018).
Given its social, political and cultural dimensions, a multidisciplinary approach to the study of social media is necessary. Multiple methods are needed to study social media, given the scope and depth of these communications. Gerber and Lynch (2017) suggested that researchers should examine social media data to analyze patterns. It is also necessary to address the semiotic dimensions of social media communication, which is a methodological path we follow below.
Police in the social media society
Social media provides public police a new way of managing their visibility and contesting critiques of their work (Walsh and O'Connor, 2019; Grimmelikhuijsen and Meijer, 2015). Police use Twitter and Facebook to engage with community and attempt to optimize information exchange with citizens (Dai et al., 2017; Crump, 2011). Social media networking and hashtagging is a tactic used by police organizations to interact with the public to humanize policing. Negative comments toward policing accounted for only 17% of tweets analyzed in the study, suggesting that police Twitter communications are effectively portraying officer benevolence. This effect is likely variable over time and context. Lee and McGovern (2016, 2013) have focused on how public police use media to manufacture public confidence and legitimacy and downplay discussion of police risk, harm or incompetence.
Police use social media not only to send messages to the public but also to collect information about citizens and their conduct (Beshears, 2017). Digital and social media gives the state a new infrastructure to extend practices of sovereignty further into the lives of citizens (Stadler, 2018, p. 199; Kaun and Stiernstedt, 2014). Goldsmith (2015) examined police focus on Facebook friends as a means of collecting information. Social media may also enable online forms of profiling and surveillance. Bejan et al. (2018) found that police may retaliate against racialized or marginalized groups, who critique police on social media (also see Procter et al., 2013).
Digital and social media also allow users to perform identity (Bollmer, 2018), even identities that are based on fantasy. In the realm of social media, one can perform as an avatar with designed and exaggerated characteristics. These different identities are not only variable but symbolic: the selection of avatars and online names and images means something that deserves academic attention (Flisfeder, 2014, p. 235). Kudla and Parnaby (2018) discussed how police organizations strategically manage their external communications, including on Twitter, to legitimize their mandate and conduct and manage images of social control (also see Hu and Lovrich, 2019).
Few studies of police social media communications in Canada exist. Kudla and Parnaby (2018) showed that police Twitter communications in Canada seek to bolster public views of police members (also see Schneider, 2016; Meijer and Thaens, 2013; Trottier, 2012). Attempts to alter police culture undertaken by police agencies are strategies for enhancing legitimacy (Harkin, 2015; Bottoms and Tankebe, 2012; Murphy et al., 2008). However, research on police legitimacy tends to be focused on citizens’ attitudes rather than on forms of communication and cultural work that police do to manufacture this sentiment. Few studies have examined police social media representations of philanthropy or the implications of representations of philanthropy for police legitimacy literature.
Criminal justice and philanthropy
There is a growing confluence between business, nonprofit and criminal justice sectors (Bromley and Meyer, 2017), which is represented in the social media communications we analyzed. More criminal justice agencies are partnering with nonprofit and voluntary sector agencies, changing the mandate of community groups (Maguire et al., 2019) and increasing capital flows between all agencies. Eikenberry and Kluver (2004) showed that public sector agencies increasingly incorporate governance models from the private sector. To this end, more affluent police foundations are giving more money to police and community groups (Walby et al., 2018, 2020), which can not only alter public perceptions of police but also allow private influence in criminal justice networks. The entwining of business, nonprofit and criminal justice agencies creates a set of relations in which there are few barriers between these agencies, meaning they may be a freer to attempt to influence the mandates of one another (see Weisbrod, 1997). As Oelberger (2018) noted, it is necessary to examine representations of philanthropic giving to see what kinds of motivations the givers have and to understand what they expect in return. The examples of police social media use and charity that we examine reveal this confluence of approaches and also raise questions about what else police expect to get back in return beyond legitimacy and social capital.
Research methods
Our study originated from an interest in the philanthropic work of Canadian police, police associations and police foundations communicated on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. To determine which social media platforms would be analyzed, keyword searches were conducted on three common platforms: Facebook, Twitter and Instagram (also see Smith et al., 2018; Lieberman et al., 2013). Common terms such as “police,” “department,” “unit” and “foundation” were utilized to locate pages. Because of varying police jurisdictions, changes were made to the keyword searches, i.e. “Calgary Police Foundation” vs “Edmonton Police Service.” This process entailed entering keywords into social media platform search engines. Platforms such as Twitter and Instagram allow users to search for specific profiles or picture tags. Profiles were manually examined for communications of philanthropic text and images.
Twitter emerged as the predominant source for police department communications on philanthropic work. Facebook and Instagram were used by some departments but not by all. We examined police communications from Twitter pages for posts promoting the philanthropic work of police services, police associations and police foundations. Pages for police departments were selected to have at least one representative for each province. Posts that promoted philanthropic police work were drawn from several sources. This includes tweets, retweets and likes from the direct pages of police departments, foundations and associations, other users such as news outlets like Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) and Global News, as well as the personal accounts of police, government and community members.
We analyzed a total of 73 tweets that met our sampling criteria. The sampling time frame spans a 10-month period, beginning in November of 2018 and ending in October of 2019. Because police departments use their Twitter accounts to update the public on various bulletins such as arrests, missing persons and traffic, hundreds of tweets were sorted through. We observed 20–75 interactions (posting, sharing or commenting) per day. The tweets were compiled from 13 different Twitter accounts from across Canada, comprising ten departments and three foundations. This sample represents five provinces and ten different cities. From this sample, a total of 41 images of philanthropy were also collected for the semiotic image analysis, in which we evaluated the emotion or atmosphere of the event in relation to police social media communications. These philanthropic tweets represented 69% of communications made by police.
Using inductive coding, communications were analyzed for words, hashtags and images that indicated community work or philanthropy. These communications consisted of words like “support,” “promote,” “community” and words of appreciation such as “thankful” and “thanks,” as well as images which portrayed fundraisers, community events and youth-involved activities. The authors co-coded material to ensure coherence in the coding procedures. A total of four themes emerged: community, diversity, youth and crime prevention.
Tweets were categorized in part based on featured hashtags within the post. Hashtags related to fundraising, such as #SirensForLife [2], were clicked on to explore other Twitter posts that use the hashtag to discover other police pages promoting the campaign. Other police pages aimed toward promoting philanthropy were discovered through mentions [3] and searching page followers. One compounding factor is the issue of retweeting, which may create overlap and associations between social media users and other agencies. Out of the 73 tweets analyzed, 85 hashtags were used. Only 49% of tweets contained hashtags, with the average tweet containing at least two tags.
We used a combination of discourse and semiotic analysis to examine these police communications further. The discourse analysis focuses on the manifest and latent characteristics of communication (Hakam, 2009; Felberg, 2008). Drawing from the discourse analysis allows us to explore the connotations conveyed in these communications. The semiotic analysis allows us to examine the visual imagery used in the online messages and communications (Wilson and Landon-Hays, 2016; Manning, 2010) and trace the affective relations communicated visually. Since we are more interested in the meanings of these communications and images, we used a qualitative approach focused on the context, format and connotations of these texts (Valverde, 2006) rather than a computational method (Perriman, 2020) for data collection and analysis.
The data analysis
Community and philanthropy
The first theme discovered in these Twitter communications focuses on philanthropy and its connection to community development. In our sample, 8% of police Twitter communications highlighted police activity within the community to raise funds for community groups. Departments advertise a goal of developing and building relationships between the community and its officers, providing ample opportunity for community members to interact with officers. Police departments are using social media platforms to generate a sense of community presence and awareness, offering department-supported events like “Coffee with a Cop” or showing their support for the community (i.e. Toronto Police’s partaking at the launch of Church-Wellesley Village's new mural on behalf of the city's large lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and two-spirited [LGBTQ*2S] community). Hum et al. (2011) argued that the images used in social media communication are crucial to the forms of identity construction and presentations of self that happen online. As we will show below while analyzing the hashtags and image, police are positioning their philanthropy as a form of community development with these communications.
Diversity and philanthropy
The second theme accounted for 15% of tweets in our sample. These police communications focused on philanthropic work that depicted police working alongside marginalized populations (person(s) with disabilities, Indigenous, impoverished and refugee). The work of policing involves building relationships within the community and such relationship-building aims to build a sense of trust and respect for officers and their work. Tweets that focused on such work expressed involvement in traditional activities such as powwows, Indigenous days and various cultural celebrations throughout the country. Police and other organizations expressed the need for the celebration of culture and diversity, as one Tweet mentioned, “[A powwow is] a celebration of community; it's a celebration of connections.” Police must engage in image management that communicates positive messaging but avoids creating images that decrease the perception of legitimacy or transparency (Bullock, 2018). Hence, focusing on diversity becomes crucial in this regard.
Youth and philanthropy
Youth and philanthropy was the second largest group of police communications. As portrayed through tweets, youths are a targeted group for cadet programming and community engagement. “Revolutionizing the lives of youth and young adults,” as one post stated, police departments and organizations look to create a meaningful impact in the lives of youth, whether they are so-called at risk or not. Engaging in activities such as basketball tournaments, street hockey games or nights out (i.e. bowling with Big Brothers and Big Sisters) is also common. A total of 27% of police and police organization tweets advertise and promote programming initiatives, emphasizing the benefits of education and early intervention for youth. Moreover, police Twitter often raises awareness of events and/or fundraisers which focus on creating a meaningful impact in the lives of youth. One tweet from the Calgary Police Service promoted the “Termination Run [which helps to impact] the lives of youth who are [affected] by addiction.” Philanthropic work that supports youth is a collaborative effort by police departments and other community organizations and supports.
In addition to youth programming, many departments advertised support of school initiatives. This included supporting school breakfast clubs, bullying awareness day and events put on by schools in the community, all examples of how police departments are building relationships with students. Moreover, many schools across Canada have what is known as a school resource officer – a police officer who is responsible for crime prevention and safety at the site. In an effort to connect with students, a tweet from the Regina Police Service Community Engagement Unit (RPSCEU), resource officers award positive tickets and swag to students as part of the National Teen Driver Safety Week.
Crime prevention partnerships and philanthropy
Crime prevention and philanthropy was the largest group of police communications, accounting for 45% of the sample. Many departments offered free education sessions on crime prevention and community awareness or events such as “Coffee with a Cop” – an opportunity to meet an officer, ask questions and share comments. Outreach programming and events appeared to be frequent occurrences within communities, allowing officers to connect with members of the community and build relationships. Other departments offered educational sessions that extended beyond crime prevention and allowed community members to learn about the police in their city. For example, the Winnipeg Police Service published a tweet in which a young boy can be seen learning about the specialty units, K-9 and Tactical Support. Calgary also hosted similar programs, a summer camp visit in which campers learned about Helicopter Air Watch for Community Safety.
At the core of philanthropy is claimed to be the desire to promote the welfare of others, most often through the donation of money to charitable causes. Each police department featured tweets that spotlighted campaigns to generate awareness and support. From Special Olympics to McHappy Day, officers across the country participated in various events that raised money for nonprofits. These included pancake breakfasts, motion ball tournaments and truck convoys. As a tweet from the Saskatoon Police highlighted, supporting nonprofits like Special Olympics is a community effort and events are often conducted in partnership with other community organizations [4]. Local businesses also partner with departments to help provide support and comfort to youth during emergencies. A Guelph tweet shows a cruiser pictured outside a local car dealership filled with plush animals which is captioned “ensuring police cruisers are equipped.” Because social media can reach a larger audience than most forms of advertisements, it has become a useful marketing tool. Not only does it make the philanthropic work visible to the public but also it allows community business and police members the opportunity to form partnerships to promote programming and nonprofit organizations.
Variation by organization type
It may be assumed that social media communications would vary depending on the type of police affiliate (be it police services, police associations or police foundations). We found that police foundations do communicate differently than police associations. Each has its distinctive approach and agenda. However, social media accounts for police foundations (Facebook, Instagram and Twitter) are sparse.
Through social media, police convey ideas about their relevance, offering events that embody values such as community outreach, problem-solving and crime prevention objectives. Moreover, police services utilize their platforms to enhance communication, collaboration and information exchange with the public. Social media accounts allow officers to be more accessible for community members to keep up to date and stay in contact with police than other platforms (i.e. news broadcasting). However, most police foundations took a different approach to the governance of their social media accounts.
While sparse, the police foundations which had active social media accounts often neglected to publish their own work. Instead, police foundations generally retweeted. Retweets entail reposting or sharing the social media post of another person or organization. Like police associations, retweets shared by police foundations focused on community outreach, philanthropy and crime prevention objectives. Retweets by foundations often included tweets made by the police services in the area (i.e. Calgary Police Foundation retweeted what Calgary Police had published). When foundations did generate their own communications, they primarily focused on community outreach in the form of fund-raising programs that were directly related to their causes or other police-related events. Retweeting created some overlap in communications across organizational type.
The hashtag analysis
Social media users often include hashtags in their posts. Utilizing tools within social media such as hashtags allows users to reach a broader audience. Hashtags can now be used on most social media platforms. Police services, police associations and police foundations often included a few to several hashtags within their tweets. The use of hashtags and their effect depends on what idea was conveyed by the original tweet. For example, the Regina Police Service took part in their Fourth Annual Powwow with the Ranch Ehrlo Society, a nonprofit multiservice agency delivering a wide range of accredited mental health and developmental services, tagging the photos with the words “#friends”, “#community,” “#culture” and “#commitment.” In addition to the singular tags, the post also shares a tagline of “#togetherforabrightfuture” to commemorate the participation of Regina Police Service and other community members. The Regina Police Service account did not publish the tweet themselves, rather it was retweeted from the personal account of Evan Bray, the Regina Chief of Police. This post demonstrates the very basis of hashtags as a tool utilized to promote various persons, organizations and events which allow people to find, follow and add to the conversation. Police organizations, like businesses, generate campaign hashtags to promote awareness of and engagement with the public about an event (i.e. #sirensforlife).
As noted, police communications about philanthropy appeared under four main themes: community, diversity, youth and crime prevention. Hashtags helped us to determine which theme category a post belonged to. Posts that featured themes of community and philanthropy, advertising the goal of developing and building relationships between the community and officers, generally used hashtags that included words such as community, community building and campaign slogans, for example, “#McHappyDay2019” and “#PinkShirtday.” Others contained abbreviations for the region the department or event was located. For example, the hashtag #yxe is seen throughout a majority of Saskatoon Police departments’ posts. In another example, the Saskatoon Police Service (SPS) promoted the needs of their homeless community through an event called Sanctum Survivor Saskatchewan. The event encouraged raising awareness about the needs of the homeless and those living with chronic illness and how SPS could provide better service. The tweet only contained two hashtags, a campaign slogan #SanctumSurvivorYXE and regional tag #yxe. This police communication tactic was common when featuring posts related to community.
As it regards the theme of diversity and philanthropy, most posts were focused on providing viewers or followers with visual aids such as photos and videos. Departments promoted diversity through campaigning or raising awareness for events encouraging diversity within the community. When a post did feature hashtags, they were minimal, highlighting the department or region. We found that some specific group events focusing on diverse communities received a larger promotion or “boost” such as more hashtags, several pictures and tags to the location and other organizations involved. For example, when Toronto's Church-Wellesley Village unveiled a new mural, the Toronto Police Service tweeted “[s]howing love for the LGBTQ*2S community #IDAHOT2019 #VillageLoveTO #IDAHOTB #IDAHOBIT.” Similarly, the Calgary Police Service teamed up with the Lethbridge and Taber departments to help with powwow and rodeo events at the Kainai First Nation. This tweet featured four photos (the maximum allowed in a Twitter post) and a broader range of hashtags, which included #Collaboration #Kainai #Powwow #Rodeo.
As it regards youth and philanthropy, these posts often received promotion through hashtags by departments. Often within the tweet, police promoted youth and their importance to the future community. Events ranged from recreation-related sports to one-on-one conferences, where youth in the community were offered the opportunity to express their ideas to local police departments. Educating and supporting community youth is often a high priority in police’s philanthropy. Police focus on building relationships with youth to promote education about law enforcement, careers and safety in their schools and neighborhoods. While hashtags allow a tweet to spread throughout a network, the connotations conveyed are limited. To delve deeper into the meanings of these communications, it is important to also assess the images accompanying the tweets.
The semiotic image analysis
Using relevant images on Twitter allows users to gain attention and convey information. Since an image can convey meaning with little to no words, adding an image to a post compels viewers to stop and look. Adding images to Twitter allows users to strategically communicate with their audience, creating an impression of who they are (Russmann and Svensson, 2017). As Kudla and Parnaby (2018) discussed, police organizations engage in image work to construct a legitimate public image. Our sample demonstrates that police departments rely heavily on the use of images within their Twitter communication, as images accounted for 56% of tweets. Images were most prominent in campaigns that featured community and youth involvement. Furthermore, the use of images often aided in giving meaning to the post because Twitter limits the user in the amount of text and characters he/she can use (up to 140 characters). Images within police’s Twitter communications helped to convey the emotion or atmosphere of the event.
As noted above, social media pictures can align people together against others (Lupton, 2020). Images of social media can create affective relation and affinities. We suggest this occurs with the images that police post on Twitter in relation to philanthropy. Many of the images show people posing with police, smiling and enjoying themselves. For example, in the first image, one Calgary Police Service officer in uniform and two others wearing jogging attire pose with their arms around one another, smiling. They are participating in what is called the Terminator Run, a somewhat oddly named event for youth addictions and mental health awareness organized by the Terminator Foundation. All the people are White and are affectionate with one another. In the background, there is a staging tent for the race and fundraiser. This photograph in particular creates a joyful affective relation (Lupton, 2020). The semiotic strategy here is one that not only seeks to capitalize on philanthropic relation but also the affective relation being pictured.
Other photographs show police going the extra mile and devoting their leisure time to local charity work. Several photos posted showed police officers touching civilians and physically connecting with them. Another photograph created an intimate affective relation. In the second image, an older White man posed with several high school age women of color after a mock wrestling match, including several Black women. An Edmonton Police Service officer was wrestling a gym teacher to raise money for a breakfast program. The White officer posed with the young women, with his arms around them. The goal of this semiotic arrangement was not only capitalizing on philanthropic relation but also the affective relation in the picture. These tweets showed police giving back to marginalized populations and appearing in pictures touching them, creating an affective relation (Lupton, 2020) that differed from other forms of touching (e.g. handcuffing and beating), which police may engage in with members of those same communities.
In the third image, Winnipeg Police Service officers posed with representatives from the Children's Wish Foundation, the United Way, Cops for Kids, as well as Starbucks. The group was offering coffee to the public during the Bike-to-Work Week at a table in front of the police headquarters while seeking donations for Children's Wish Foundation in Manitoba. The group was posing with their arms around one another, smiling. The semiotic strategy of the photo connoted police officers who were omnipresent and always providing service to the public. Wood (2020) argued that police’s social media use verged on misinformation to the extent it showed images that diverged from the realities of policing or that focused on cute animal memes to create a softer image of police. These images do distract from other elements of policing (use of force and brutality) often aimed toward Black and Indigenous persons in Canada.
Finally, many of the photographs posted showed police officers literally and physically giving gifts to members of the public. In the fourth image, two Guelph Police Service officers gave bikes to winners of the Guelph Police Ice Cream Ticket Campaign, raising funds for and awareness about youth bicycle safety. The officers appeared friendly and everyone in the scene was smiling without trepidation. These photographs advanced images of police that in semiotic terms are directly at odds with the image of police that many people in Canadian society may have, especially those in marginalized communities, which these philanthropic initiatives sought to connect with. The central finding from the semiotic analysis is what we call the upsetting juxtaposition of these images of police alongside persons who might be profiled or monitored or tracked by police in other contexts. It is a potentially upsetting scene for those people who have had negative experiences with police. At the same time, police officers are strategically using these communications to upend previous understandings of police work and police culture.
Whether it was a police department or foundation, photos used on police’s Twitter shared similar characteristics. Photos were often taken during events to catch officers in action with community members of all ages. Officers can be seen engaging in street hockey games, powwows and on school campuses. Other photos featured within Twitter posts included those used for campaigning and promoting fundraisers like seen on the Calgary Police Foundations’ Twitter page. Images were plentiful, filled with youthful faces supporting police programs and raising funds. Other Twitter pages reflected graphic designs featuring the marketing of events like “Coffee with a Cop.” Almost all departments hosted such an event as well as tweeted about it.
Discussion and conclusion
Contributing to the literature on police media work (Walsh and O'Connor, 2019; Goldsmith, 2015; Trottier, 2012; Crump, 2011) and the literature on philanthropic fundraising by large organizations (Eikenberry and Mirabella, 2018; Goss, 2016; Farrell, 2015), we have analyzed public police’s Twitter communications depicting the philanthropic work of police in Canada. Public police used social media to represent themselves and their work in ways that may be based more on fantasy rather than actual police practices or community experiences. The process manifested in four central ways.
First, the theme of diversity and encouragement of community bonds appeared throughout many of department posts. Police often participated in community events or fundraisers focused on raising awareness about the needs of the community and combatting systemic issues such as racism. However, Flisfeder (2014) argued that this sense of connection and community created by social media is a false one. Instead, the sense of community created by clicking and liking repetitively is a mirage: “…the use of social networks such as MySpace, Facebook, Youtube and Twitter facilitate the integration of users into the matrices of neoliberal capitalism” (p. 230). This is perhaps even more so the case with the overlap of social media use and the circulation of economic and social capital that philanthropy entails. Second, a small majority of posts (58%) that centered on philanthropic work included engagement with marginalized populations (person(s) with disabilities, Indigenous, impoverished and refugee groups). Third, youth programming was presented as an aspect of policing within many of the departments. The posts about philanthropy denoted police fundraising for groups in need. Yet, the latent content revealed a type of positioning of police adjacent to groups that often distrust or fear police. Finally, there was a trend toward crime prevention signaling in these communications. Fundraising itself was symbolically construed as a form of crime fighting.
More research on police’s social media use is needed to assess how police’s philanthropy is framed in different national contexts and whether or not these themes and hashtags appear in other jurisdictions. There are limits to this research design as well. Police in Quebec were not represented because we found minimal tweets in English. Police in Nova Scotia were not represented because of infrequent posts on the topic of study, making it challenging to locate tweets from these provinces that met our sampling criteria. More analyses are needed to examine such representations over time and in multiple jurisdictions.
The effect of these communications may boost the legitimacy of Canadian public police. This happens through association with the donee groups and through the flaunting of social capital and connections. As Kuldova (2018) argued, communication about charitable giving by large organizations is an attempt to engage in image management in the face of crises of legitimacy and status. There is only so much legitimacy that can be built through following procedure or being subject to official oversight (Bottoms and Tankebe, 2012). Viewing police communications about philanthropy in this light reveals insights about the politics of giving and the politics of police use of social media today. These politics are perhaps best encapsulated in what O'Malley and Hutchinson (2007) called the converging corporatization and rise of business principles and ethos in North American police organizations. There may also be charitable conflicts of interest (Luscombe et al., 2018; Fridman and Luscombe, 2017; MacDonald et al., 2002) that emerge in such relations of giving, which require further research.
Since the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, the USA, on May 25, 2020, the economics of policing have been under scrutiny as never before. Even the donations of police foundations have been subject to calls for oversight and defunding (Ramakrishna, 2020). We have argued that the increased use of police social media promoting philanthropic work is political in the sense that it aims to bolster a sense of legitimacy and generate reciprocal relations over the long-term. Likewise, Copeman and Banerjee (2020) contended that the whole point of philanthropy is to create a set of shadow relations that entrain the receiver of the gift to experience an obligation to give back to or to follow the giver of the gift in some way. More research is needed to see if these social media images can recast the police relationship with communities in the future of if they will become the target of critique as calls for disarming, defunding and disbanding police grow louder.
Funding: Funded by SSHRC Insight Development Grant 430-2019-00089.
Notes
1.Words or phrases preceded by the pound sign (#), which is known as the hashtag, commonly used on social media websites and applications to identify messages on a specific topic.
2.A campaign in partnership with Canadian Blood Services and EMS personnel across Canada, bringing awareness to the importance of blood donation.
3.On Twitter when someone uses the @ sign immediately followed by your Twitter username.
4.Cops and Crepes, Saskatoon Police Service partners with Cora's Breakfast to raise funds and awareness for Special Olympics.
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