Force forges ahead in Facebook page popularity battle

The Bedfordshire Police page has 17,679 fans, beating other local forces hands down.

Run by the police communications team in their spare time, the page is used mainly by members of the public asking questions about the law, seeking advice and making enquiries about police activity, while the police post witness appeals and information.

Web manager Andrea Briggs said: “We are very proud of our Facebook site. We like to think we are doing a bit more to help people and engage with them so they know we are listening.

“From the beginning we have been very strict with what we will tolerate – anything with bad language, offensive remarks or racism will be removed immediately, and now we don’t tend to have any problems. It’s a really good way of interacting with the public and we enjoy it.”

One of the latest Bedfordshire Police Facebook initiatives is the Friday poll, where users are invited to answer a question about the law.

Andrea said: “We ask quite simple questions but we are just trying to gauge what people understand and see if we are reaching them in the right way.”

“I’d like to thank the users for taking the time to engage with us. We are here to help and if people have new ideas we’d love to hear them.”

Bedfordshire Police also joined Twitter in June 2011, although it isn’t as popular as the Facebook page yet.

Neighbouring police force Thames Valley Police have 8,742 fans on their Facebook page, while Hertfordshire Police have 8,442.

The force ran a ‘Meet the chief’ session on their Facebook page last night.