I was delighted to hear that the Tennents Vital concerts at Ward Park in Bangor appear to have been a roaring success.
A huge operation involving Police, the event organisers, local council, Translink and other emergency and voluntary services, helped facilitate the attendance of over 60,000 people over the two evenings.
Events like these are hugely expensive to plan, run and police and it is important to reassure you that the organisers of this event and others like it, are required to part fund the policing operation.
Over the past week approximately 3,000 people have attended a series of performances on successive nights during the ongoing Belsonic 2011 festival at Custom House Square in the centre of Belfast. Police are continuing to work in partnership with organisers, local residents and businesses to facilitate those attending, albeit on a much smaller scale.
While Belsonic 2011 and the police operation supporting it continues, I want to place on record my thanks for the way in which the vast majority of people attending Ward Park conducted themselves. In particular I would like to thank the local community who worked with and supported us.
The fact that the events were so successful and virtually trouble free I hope will secure many more concerts for Ward Park and other venues like it.
Over the two evenings we had a substantial number of police officers on duty ensuring that those attending could arrive, attend and depart safely, while minimising any inconvenience to local residents and businesses.
During the police operation, over 4,000 items of alcohol were seized or surrendered and live updates on the PSNI Bangor Facebook site kept ticket holders and local residents up to date with traffic and concert information.
Some of the comments and suggestions no doubt helped keep some of you amused while you waited to be admitted.
Now that the dust has settled and Bangor is returning to normality, everyone who played a role in bringing these events to Northern Ireland and ensuring that they passed of successfully, can be very proud of their achievement and I look forward to seeing many more events like it in the future.
Thursday 25 August 2011
Friday 5 August 2011
The Social Media Age of Technology
Facebook and other similar social media outlets, have provided everyone with a fantastic opportunity to engage, publicly or privately, with one another in real time.
Sadly this week certain individuals tried to use this forum for sinister means to publish information and images of police officers, placing them at potential risk. This is absolutely unacceptable and I would encourage anyone who identifies social media sites or posts that place anyone at risk to report this immediately. We will certainly not be deterred from providing a police service by the placing of images or abusive comments on Facebook.
The benefits of Facebook are very clear. Your Police Service has grasped this opportunity and is now running nine Facebook pages and four Twitter accounts throughout Northern Ireland. Not only does this provide us with an opportunity to provide you with information, but it also has provided excellent opportunities for individuals to advise us about what is important, what matters most to local communities, and to debate wider policing issues. I personally follow a number of the Police Service sites and I am very encouraged by the contributions which are being made and the engagement which regularly happens on these sites.
Clearly on occasions we have to step in and remove certain inappropriate content, and no doubt this is no different from other personal and business users. The responsibility for the content each person posts is their own, and recent events have shown how irresponsible comments can become the subject of criminal proceedings. That is not to say we will remove all negative comments. It is right that people have an opportunity to voice their views even if these may be critical of police actions. We can learn a lot from constructive criticism, and this is to be actively encouraged.
We hope over the next few months to make the Police Service of Northern Ireland even more accessible to social media users and I encourage those of you who already live or work in the areas where we currently have sites to follow and engage with us in this way. The feedback to date has been extremely positive and we have been greatly encouraged by the support which we have received.
But if you haven't quite caught the 'social media' bug yet, don't be concerned. This was always intended to be in addition to and not instead of the more traditional means of face to face engagement of visible, accessible and familiar police officers on patrol. And even though many thousands of people in Northern Ireland and beyond follow Facebook - and it's a great way to keep in touch - nothing beats an old fashioned face to face chat.
Sadly this week certain individuals tried to use this forum for sinister means to publish information and images of police officers, placing them at potential risk. This is absolutely unacceptable and I would encourage anyone who identifies social media sites or posts that place anyone at risk to report this immediately. We will certainly not be deterred from providing a police service by the placing of images or abusive comments on Facebook.
The benefits of Facebook are very clear. Your Police Service has grasped this opportunity and is now running nine Facebook pages and four Twitter accounts throughout Northern Ireland. Not only does this provide us with an opportunity to provide you with information, but it also has provided excellent opportunities for individuals to advise us about what is important, what matters most to local communities, and to debate wider policing issues. I personally follow a number of the Police Service sites and I am very encouraged by the contributions which are being made and the engagement which regularly happens on these sites.
Clearly on occasions we have to step in and remove certain inappropriate content, and no doubt this is no different from other personal and business users. The responsibility for the content each person posts is their own, and recent events have shown how irresponsible comments can become the subject of criminal proceedings. That is not to say we will remove all negative comments. It is right that people have an opportunity to voice their views even if these may be critical of police actions. We can learn a lot from constructive criticism, and this is to be actively encouraged.
We hope over the next few months to make the Police Service of Northern Ireland even more accessible to social media users and I encourage those of you who already live or work in the areas where we currently have sites to follow and engage with us in this way. The feedback to date has been extremely positive and we have been greatly encouraged by the support which we have received.
But if you haven't quite caught the 'social media' bug yet, don't be concerned. This was always intended to be in addition to and not instead of the more traditional means of face to face engagement of visible, accessible and familiar police officers on patrol. And even though many thousands of people in Northern Ireland and beyond follow Facebook - and it's a great way to keep in touch - nothing beats an old fashioned face to face chat.
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