Chief Constable Simon Parr said: “There is a lot of great police work going on in the county every day and we want to share that with the public, using a range of tools to ensure as many people as possible have access to this information.

CAMBRIDGESHIRE police have brought crime fighting into the social networking age by joining the popular website, Twitter.

A number of police forces across the country have successfully used Twitter to keep the public up to date with crime information and the incidents they attend and the Cambridgeshire force finally followed suit this week by launching its own page.

Chief Constable Simon Parr said: “There is a lot of great police work going on in the county every day and we want to share that with the public, using a range of tools to ensure as many people as possible have access to this information.

“Our Twitter account is a quick way for people to dip in and out of the work we do and is accessible 24 hours a day at the convenience of the public. More importantly the public can share this information with friends, family or colleagues and provide us with instant feedback on their thoughts on our work.

“This is also an opportunity for us to reach an audience that might not have shown an interest, or expressed an opinion on police work before.”

Twitter was launched in 2006 and has since become a global phenomenon, with more than 100 million people worldwide logging on every month to post 140-word ‘mircro-blogs’ about almost anything and everything.

Cambridgeshire police hope the short updates, known as ‘tweets’, will give the public a better insight into police work. The force is also keen to encourage interest in policing among those using social networking sites, as well as those reading or watching traditional media. To follow the force’s Twitter page visit: www.twitter.com/cambscops.

The police are now able to ‘tweet’ about crime as it happens on their new Twitter page.