Nina Cesare will be presenting our joint work “Exploring the Relationship Between Citizens and the Police Via Twitter” at the upcoming annual meeting of the Population Association of America. This project is joint work with Tyler McCormick and Hedy Lee.
Title: Exploring the Relationship Between Citizens and the Police Via Twitter
Abstract: While there exist numerous efforts to better understand the relationship between citizens and law enforcement, most available data on this topic provides only details on isolated encounters with possible offenders or snapshots of opinions from one side of the encounter. What is needed is synthesis of sustained dialogue among police and citizens. Using longitudinal data consisting of messages posted by New York City and Seattle police precinct accounts, mentions of these accounts by private citizens, and general mentions of law enforcement within these metro areas, this project will detect whether citizens and/or police address issues pertaining to police practices and community wellbeing on Twitter and determine through which channels these interactions occur. Finding thematic congruence in content posted by these groups and identifying the channels through which this conversation occurs has important implications for the development of police/community trust, the implementation of police reform measures, and overall community wellbeing.