Metropolitan Police hires 6Consulting to monitor the web

originally published:
19th August 2009

The Metropolitan Police has appointed a digital agency for a brief that is thought to include monitoring the web for both evidence of crime and conversations about the Met’s policing methods.

6Consulting has been hired for a project, expected to last six to 12 months, to oversee social media monitoring for the Met. Although the Met and 6Consulting refused to comment any further, other than to confirm the appointment, it is understood the brief includes monitoring of Twitter, Facebook and blogs.

This activity is being undertaken in order to gain an understanding of how the Met is perceived, but also as an additional way for the police to uncover crime. One insider said: ‘What the Met is looking for is a combination of crisis alerts and management. ‘If someone blogs saying “there’s a little bit of a riot going on down the street from me”, it will be able to respond that bit faster.’

The agency was appointed after a competitive pitch process and reports to Met Police head of internal communication Jim O’Donnell. 6Consulting provides clients with access to social media monitoring software that can be imported into the client’s own system.

It is understood that this is what the Met liked about the offering from the agency, which plans to use the software at New Scotland Yard. Brando director of social media David Cushman said the move was a ‘wise first step’ in giving the Met a taste of conversations going on about it in social media.

Read full article >

Posted by 4WardEver UK on 23/08/2009. Filed under Breaking News & Digests. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry