So the other day, I read this post from Darren. Essentially, he wrote a twitter update about a couple of guys on transit who were joking about spray painting all the CCTV cameras. Very obviously to anyone who reads it that it was tongue in cheek, because even people who support CCTV can’t LIKE the fact that every time they scratch their ass, it’s being recorded for someone to scrutinize later. (Incidentally, all the new cameras on the buses? Makes me want to pick my nose and stare at them REAL HARD. HI MOM.)
Obvious to everyone except, of course, to the Transit Police twitter account, who apparently have a saved search on the keyword “skytrain”, and read every tweet mentioning it. Darren’s mention of this caused me to be somewhat curious and dig through some of their other recent tweets.
And y’know, I’m a child of transit. Mom’s worked there for almost 30 years — do the math, and well, that’s basically my entire life. My step-father has worked there longer than I’ve been alive. Due to this, I tend to be MUCH more sympathetic to transit employees and the system as a whole than most people I know. I’m also a 30 yr old employed middle-class pseudo-professional who, despite owning a car, is a very heavy transit user by choice and likes it. Heck, it drives me nuts when Nick wants to drive to go downtown, because ugh, then we have to find parking, and seriously, the bus stop is RIGHT THERE…
Anyway, point is? I’m pro-transit.
I was mildly wigged out when Transit got its own armed police force, but hell, the regular police forces don’t have the manpower to focus on Transit as much as it needs, and the transit system crosses too many jurisdictions for the multiple police forces across the various cities, so this seems like a reasonable solution.
So you see where I’m coming from. My initial response to anything anti-transit is USUALLY on the transit side of things, because I know where THEY’RE coming from. Mom was assaulted once, when she was a driver, about 20 years ago. That’s not cool. Nobody wants that.
Twitter can be an excellent tool. It’s a great PR tool, when used correctly. And when used incorrectly, it makes you look like a giant piece of crap. Case in point: Someone on twitter mentioned that they’d dropped a piece of pizza. The Transit Police, of course, responded to this with a chastisement, a reminder that food like that isn’t allowed on the skytrain, and a “hope you picked that up”. Seriously?
I’m impressed at Translink for realizing that social media counts. They could (and they succeed in many cases) do a LOT for improving their public image, which is generally pretty shitty. However, to quote a lolcat, “ur doing it wrong”.
I ended up getting in a twitter-argument (twitgument?) with the @TransitPolice account over this. Apparently, “twitter is used for many things. Reminding people to be respectful, what is wrong with that?” Well, for one, since when do we go to the police for our manners? Quite frankly, if ANY stranger tried to correct my manners — ESPECIALLY through a social media avenue like Twitter, I’d be pretty offended. Having it come from the police just makes it that much more irritating. As a representative of your profession & employer, there are certain expectations. I wouldn’t dream of chastising any of my clients, especially one who I didn’t have a previous relationship with.
Honestly, good on them for trying. But they’re failing so hard it makes me angry. I’m trying to be on their side, but they’re making it impossible. Sure, scan anyone who mentions skytrain. But your interactions should be positive, not passive aggressively nasty. What do you think the recipient of said admonishment thought? Do you think they were HAPPY that their offhand tweet about dropping their pizza got the attention of the police? Who LIKES being told off, by anyone, nevermind a cop? You can hide behind your description of a “friendly reminder” all you want, but what it comes down to is that you sound like a bully, a “Big Brother”, watching over any offhand comment that someone might make.
This sort of thing will never, EVER bode well for the police. What it WILL do is make people more paranoid and more negative toward police in general. Instead of making us paranoid, how about trying to earn our trust and respect? Why not try to get us on THEIR side? Because honestly, I don’t really know too many people who actually trust the transit police. Maybe this is how they want it? Seems counter productive to me.
I really need to remember that the person behind the twitter account is one person, and that one clueless guy (who’s probably been trained in traditional PR, which does not prepare one well for social media) doesn’t mean the entire group should be written off. On the other hand, he’s representing Translink on a professional level that they’re expecting to be judged by. So, I’m judging.
Translink: If you’re going to get into social media, hire someone who has a clue to do it. You’re making yourself look worse, and quite frankly, the Transit Police has a bad enough reputation as it is. And @TransitPolice? Don’t get into pissing matches over Twitter. (Granted, this goes for me, too. Heh.) Try to stick with “positive” interactions, rather than seeming to go out of your way to infuriate people.
Update: As an absolutely infuriating update, the man behind the TransitPolice twitter account referred to me as “too sensitive” as a reply to my comment on Darren’s post. I am enraged, to say the least.
I understand your frustration. Sadly, CCTV is getting more and more widespread. Stephen Fry had an excellent bit on his podcast about CCTV. Cory Doctorow mentions it often, as he lives in Britan (CCTV capital of the world) and Charles Stross has an interesting idea of a future where everyone records their life and has it available publicly.
Hrm. It’s a messy issue.
Still, the twitter thing is creepy. Social networking has a generally positive connotation to it. It lets you keep up with and communicate with people you otherwise wouldn’t be keeping up with. To have that perverted into a monitoring tool of the authorities is unsettling.
Huh, is that a legitimate twitter account, or is it some random person pretending to be the official transit police? I popped over to look at the comments and found it hard to believe that someone who worked in marketing or PR would make posts and replies that seem so invasive, confrontational and generally clueless. Maybe it’s a troll who is trying to make the transit police look bad?
@marmot: Sadly, I have no doubt it’s a real officer.
Marmot: No, it’s definitely legit, I’ve known it existed for a while, just never bothered looking. SkytrainLady is the other Translink twitter account that I know of.
Oh, and just straight “Translink”, as well. (Update: Also @cmbctransit, @skytrain, and @KenHardie.)
MOST of these do an excellent job of understanding social media. I was REALLY impressed when a friend had a good conversation (and a free bus pass) with Ken Hardie after a driver was nasty to her regarding her disability.
But @TransitPolice… well, he’s in law enforcement, which tends to draw a certain type. (The type who favor DNA banks from birth. Aaagh. Yes, that’s another conversation he got in on.) I shouldn’t expect much, but I do. And wow, he’s really lowering the bar…
Marmot: The bio for @TransitPolice says “Media Relations Officer, Transit Police Service. 169 officers providing safe transit for Metro Vancouver.”
Donna: there’s also @KenHardie (Translink’s media guy, who usually ‘gets it’), @cmbctransit for the bus system, @skytrain for, well… and @thebuzzer. They’re all usually really good (Ken’s been particularly awesome for receiving complaints about operators, station conditions, etc. in a professional manner and handling them quickly).
I’d be creeped out just to know that the transit police (in an official capacity, anyways) were reading every tweet with the word “skytrain” in it, never mind responding to as many as that guy does. It makes me feel uncomfortably scrutinised; I have very little to feel guilty about and I think my transit tweets would be of zero interest to the police, but intrusive surveillance* never fails to make me feel like I’m being judged by the powers that be.
*It’s more the ‘intrusive’ than the ‘surveillance’ that bothers me. I don’t mind being watched if it’s in the context of being one unremarkable dot in a crowd of thousands upon thousands, which is pretty much what I would be from the perspective of anybody trying to monitor Vancouver’s transit network via CCTV.
Hey, I’m Jhenifer from TransLink — I tweet at @thebuzzer and do the blog at buzzer.translink.ca.
Donna, I just wanted to say thanks for taking the time to put your thoughts on this out here. Social media is new for many of us at TransLink, and we’re are genuinely listening to comments like yours (in hopefully a non-invasive way!) to learn how we can do better. Thanks!
Thanks Jhenifer. Nice comment. :)
Hi Donna and others.. Tweets are not private, are they. If that cop was on the train and saw a guy drop a slice of Pizza, do you think he would ask him to pick it up? I would hope so. I am sure others would also. Why would you call that chastising someone? Maybe him saying that offened you and a few others but many more were not I am sure. Are you speaking for the masses when you say the Transit Police have a bad reputation, or is that in your own opinion. The stories I have seen and googled seem to show them doing a pretty good job keeping the system safe. And as for CCTV camers, get a grip.. its for your safety and all other women and men who use transit. We cannot have cops at every station. I can only imagine your blogs in the event of you or a family member was mugged, attacked, molested or worse, and there was no CCTV footage to help police catch those responsible. You’ld be all over them and translink for not protecting you. It is clear to me you like to hear yourself tweet no mattter what the content.
Have a nice day in the sun.
“They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.” (Ben Franklin.)
A little overstated, as I’m pretty sure “picking my nose on the bus” isn’t an essential liberty, but you get the point.
I’ve been riding transit alone for 20 years. I don’t recall requiring CCTV cameras then. And, incidentally, crime rates have dropped drastically in the last 20 years, so I’m not sure why we suddenly need them now, except we live in a culture of media exposure & fear… so people are willing to accept them more.
I’m also not crazy about strangers presuming to speak for me (who are you, exactly?) I’ve never asked Translink to be responsible for protecting me. Why would you assume that? I don’t think it’s their job to be everywhere. Again, read above: My mother WAS assaulted — and she was the bus driver. No CCTV cameras involved, and not sure how they would have helped there anyway. (The regular police caught the guy all on their own, no special police force or additional technology required. Good job!)
So no. I would not be “all over them” for failing to protect me, nor was I all over them for failing to protect my mother. Not sure how blame helps much, but if I HAD to blame someone, it would be the douchecanoe who perpetrated the attack. Unless it was an officer who did that, I can’t see how it’s their fault.
That said, I don’t have a huge problem with them on transit — it’s private property, after all — aside from the annoyance and general intrusiveness, but whatever. Regardless, what I disagree with is the police breathing down ones neck, and trying to enforce *manners* through a public medium like Twitter. Of course it’s public, that’s sort of the point of a public twitter feed. I still maintain the right to be offended at the message.
Here’s the thing: He WASN’T on a train, and DIDN’T see the guy drop it. There are some really great ways to represent your employer via Twitter. Policing people via Twitter isn’t one of them.
In my opinion, anyway. Feel free to disagree. :)