Police work revealed on twitter

File photo / Herald on Sunday

Sometimes tracking the bad guy takes hours of police work, but catching a car thief proved as easy as looking out the car window for a community constable yesterday.

"Got told by comms that there was a stolen car in our area, happened to be parked right in front of us with 3 people in it," the police twitter feed '@NZPCommunity' tweeted just after 8am yesterday morning.

A woman was arrested and spent the night in the cells after refusing to give the police her details. She was due to appear in court today.

The @NZPCommunity account, which follows a community constable, is one of four official New Zealand Police twitter feeds; @NZPDelta follows a dog handler, @NZPSAR follows a search and rescue officer, and @NZPGenDuties follows a general duties officer.

James Whitaker, the police's recruitment marketing manager, said the twitter accounts are part of an online recruitment drive.

"They give potential recruits a feel for police work and also give non-potential recruits a greater feel for what we do," he said. "They show the testing aspects as well as the more rewarding."

The accounts are anonymous, Mr Whitaker said, so followers get an idea of what police work is like across the country, not just in one area.

The @NZPDelta account, which first tweeted on September 28, documents everything from giving evidence in court, to confronting violent gang members

"Just tracked offender with axe he ran a loop around his street and hid inside his house and told me he was looking 4 firewood, yeah right!," they wrote on October 15.

"Just tracked a 24yr old tagger who also had a warrant - my dog located spray cans which exploded when dog bit it - the dog is now yellow!!" they wrote on the same day.

The @NZPGenDuties account describes tackling everything from criminals to paper work.

"Went to a fire today that was started by youths behind Police station. y would u commit a crime with over 50 cops close by? They were caught," they wrote on November 10.

"Family violence is a big problem and a huge part of the job. sometimes I feel like a counsellor rather than a cop," they wrote on September 30.

The officer who runs the @NZSAR account was deployed to Greymouth for the Pike River mine tragedy.

"I met a miner who had a shift change which saved him from being in the #pikeriver mine the day of accident. Lucky guy," the account said on November 30.

Two more accounts are to be activated in the coming weeks; @NZPFitness - which will have fitness tips aimed to help people pass the police's Physical Competency Test, and @NZPoliceCollege.

While the number of people following each of the existing accounts is low at the moment, around 150, many more are following the police recruitment Facebook page. More than 1,500 people "like" the "NZ Police Recruitment" page.

"For a recruitment site it is really popular," Mr Whitaker said, adding that prospective recruits support each and give advice on the site.

With the recruitment focus on people aged 18-24, he said using social media is "really important".

"It is about meeting people where they already are."

The police's New Cops website is being revamped, and will be more "interactive", Mr Whitaker said. It should be live before Christmas.