Blogs – The Thinking Policeman

“The blog is my Jupiter – it keeps all the meteorites from hitting the Earth. It shields me from all the dangers I can’t see coming” – Sunday Times Magazine interview with PC Colin Taylor

PC Colin Taylor who polices 2,200 inhabitants of The Scilly Isles has become a social media phenomenon with a huge Facebook following. How? By writing a tongue-in-cheek account of the daily happenings on the 5 islands he polices along with two other constables.

Authentic Blogs 

“The blog has a function – it encourages people to trust him.” 

I hesitate to use the word ‘authenticity’ as it sounds inherently untrustworthy, but I guess it accurately sums up the need to find a voice that works. Take this example

“I was on a spot of foot patrol around town and returned to find these sandals outside the police station. Without wishing to cause global panic, it is self-evident that somebody has tried to call for police assistance but been abducted by an invasion force of aliens. I have checked our system for abandoned calls from Scilly or mysterious UFOs over this part of the Atlantic and there are none. Yet.”

Which prompted a whole slew of Comments and Likes, some of which were replied to, such as:

COMMENT “Can I come and work for you…please?!”

REPLY “Come on, you know the words – it’s ‘Take me to your Leader’, not ‘Can I come and work for you please’. We have to negotiate ourselves out of this fix.”

Purposeful Blogs

“I will use the internet as the modern-day equivalent of the stocks. People don’t throw tomatoes. They throw comments”

As the title quote suggests, the blog “shields me from all the dangers I can’t see coming” by allowing the friendly face of policing to be displayed.

This is hugely important in a small contained community, where policemen are expected to do everything (and never be off-duty), but not do too much (when the criminal in question will always be somebody’s nephew, cousin, or sibling.)

‘On Message’ Blogs

“I received valuable feedback from corporate communications that helped me learnt communicate better differently”

PC Taylor has apparently only been in trouble with his superiors once for the blog, prompting the above response. Which is accurate….one suspects deliberately so.

So, even within a huge organisation with umpteen rules and regulations, there is still space for an individual voice, as long as it has the same ‘Missions & Values’ (there I go again, using untrustworthy words!).

The Final Word

“As you know PC Faye Webb injured her leg when the horse she was riding became the horse she was no longer riding. Her leg was badly broken in numerous places. A lengthy operation later ensures she now bleeps every time she goes through airport security.”