Communicating police-involved deaths: a mixed-methods exploration of Canadian police agencies’ Twitter strategies and perceptions of police

Abstract

Despite increasing demands for police transparency and accountability regarding police-involved deaths (PIDs), minimal research to date has explored how police agencies utilize social media to communicate these events and little research has explored how the public perceives police statements that address publicized videos capturing an excessive use of force incident (EUOFI). This dissertation addresses this gap using a mixed-methods approach. The first study employs qualitative content analysis to examine how Canadian police agencies communicated PIDs via Twitter during a three-year period (January 1, 2020, to December 31, 2022). Of the 177 PIDs that occurred during this time, only slightly more than half were acknowledged via Twitter by the involved police agencies (n = 100). Analysis of these tweets revealed that they were often very brief, provided minimal information, and utilized a neutral tone. Further analysis suggested that many agencies used techniques to possibly obscure the event, with few clearly communicating that a death had occurred and the role that police played. Of the few tweets that employed empathy, most were identified as being defensive in tone. When comparing these communications with agencies’ tweets following a line-of-duty death (LODD) during the same three-year period, a disparity in frequency and emotional tone were observed, with agencies tweeting eight times more often about LODDs than they did for PIDs. The second study empirically analyzed the impact of different types of police communication on public perceptions after viewing a video capturing an EUOFI. Participants were randomly assigned to view a police tweet presenting excuses, justifications, or reconciliation attempts. Results indicate that those who viewed reconciliatory tweets were more satisfied with the police response they viewed compared to the other groups; however, satisfaction with local police was negatively affected by viewing these statements compared to the no comment and control conditions. Results from these studies provide valuable insight into how police communicate PIDs on Twitter and the impact police statements may have on public perceptions of police following an EUOFI shared on social media. This research contributes to ongoing discussions about police transparency and accountability following PIDs, as well as public perceptions of police.