Abstract
Crisis and disruption are often unpredictable and can create opportunities for crime. During such times, policing may also need to meet additional challenges to handle the disruption. The use of social media by officials can be essential for crisis mitigation and crime reduction. In this paper, we study the use of Twitter for crime mitigation and reduction by UK police (and associated) agencies in the early stages of the Covid-19 pandemic. Our findings suggest that whilst most of the tweets from our sample concerned issues that were not specifically about crime, especially during the first stages of the pandemic, there was a significant increase in tweets about fraud, cybercrime and domestic abuse. There was also an increase in retweeting activity as opposed to the creation of original messages. Moreover, in terms of the impact of tweets, as measured by the rate at which they are retweeted, followers were more likely to ‘spread the word’ when the tweet was content-rich (discussed a crime specific matter and contained media), and account holders were themselves more active on Twitter. Considering the changing world we live in, criminal opportunity is likely to evolve. To help mitigate this, policy makers and researchers should consider more systematic approaches to developing social media communication strategies for the purpose of crime mitigation and reduction during disruption and change more generally. We suggest a framework for so doing.
Highlights
The Covid-19 pandemic has had a profound effect on society worldwide, influencing how we work, interact with others, and travel
6 *Pre-Covid-19 era defined by the period for which by complete data were available for all stakeholders—01.09.2019 and first Covid-19 case recorded in the UK—31.01.2020; ** Covid-19 era determined by first case recorded in the UK—31.01.2020 and ease of Lockdown initiation by the Government— 10.05.2020;***Covid-19 tweets era determined by the first tweet on Covid-19 from our stakeholders—23.01.2020 and ease of Lockdown initiation by the Government—10.05.2020
A similar pattern emerged when we focused on the Twitter accounts of the Territorial police forces only
Summary
The Covid-19 pandemic has had a profound effect on society worldwide, influencing how we work, interact with others, and travel It has had an impact on crime, with studies suggesting that lockdown restrictions have been associated with reductions in crimes reported to the police for offences including burglary Studies concerned with domestic abuse (Usher et al 2020, Piquero et al 2020; Campbell 2020; Chandanet et al 2020; Boserup et al 2020, Pfitzner et al 2020) have produced mixed results, with initial spikes being followed by reductions in calls for police service With such studies it is unclear whether the reductions observed represent reductions in offending or the rate at which offences are reported to the police. While increases in crime have been reported for cybercrime (BuilGil 2020; Hakak et al 2020), including online fraud (e.g. Naidoo 2020; Cimpanu 2020), malware (Brumfield 2020), hacking and phishing
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