UK police have inadvertently placed themselves under heavy scrutiny.
Staffordshire police, along with 12 other departments, published names of people charged with—but not convicted of—driving under the influence with the hashtag #drinkdriving, according to The Sentinel. Only the Staffordshire Police Force was investigated, after a complaint, according to The Sentinel's report. A total of 86 people were named, the report states.
A spokesman from the independent data company that launched the investigation told The Sentinel an agreement has been reached by both parties.
The Tweets from the awareness and safety campaign were published, on the Staffordshire police account, on New Year's Eve and earlier in January. Since then, it appears no new names have been published, and Tweets containing names have been removed. Still, the account has kept references to the campaign up.
Just 3 people to be listed on #DrinkDriversNamedOnTwitter today in #Staffordshire
An infraction of rights, the Tweets can be misleading to social media users, peers, and more by passing a judgement of guilty despite legally being found as such. Still, some users of the social media site embrace the movement.
Dear @StaffsPolice, please keep up your #DrinkDriversNamedOnTwitter campaign. @SurreyPolice should do this as well.
Surveys done by the police force revealed people would be less likely to drink and drive if the possibiity of having their names published was real. In addition, the Police and Crime Commissioner, Matthew Ellis, said, "Policing isn't only about enforcement, it's also about stopping things from happening before they do, and this campaign is aimed at doing exactly that," to The Sentinel.
Read more: http://www.stokesentinel.co.uk/Oops-Staffordshire-Police-s-drink-driving-twitter/story-20495802-detail/story.html#ixzz2rXIsvn6a
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