A British police chief/chief constable is trying a new tactic to draw attention to what his department does: tweeting each of the emergency calls that the department receives.

While this may seem like a political stunt considering large budget cuts that are being considered, the chief says he wants to draw attention to the things police do beyond chasing criminals:

”A lot of what we do is dealing with social problems such as missing children, people with mental health problems and domestic abuse. Often these incidents can be incredibly complex and need a lot of time, resource and expertise.

”I am not saying that we shouldn’t deal with these types of incidents, far from it, but what I am saying is that this work is not recognised in league tables and measurements – yet is a huge part of what we do.”

An interesting argument. How much do police do outside what many might consider “traditional police work” of solving crimes and chasing criminals? At the same time, he seems to argue that activities like dealing with missing children and domestic abuse are outside typical boundaries – aren’t these cases often criminal complaints or issues?

Of course, if we were to draw conclusions about the police just from television and movies, we might conclude that they only work on grisly crimes…