In June 2013, Calgary along with much of southern Alberta was hit by some of the worst flooding witnessed in over 100 years. Many communities were devastated by the rising waters and thousands of people evacuated from their homes. Priority during any disaster is the protection of life. Maintaining real-time communications proved crucial during the Calgary flood.
Social media played an instrumental role in providing updated information to citizens left bewildered by the rapidly rising water. However, along with this easily accessible information came many rumours and false information. To mitigate this problem, many City of Calgary departments took to social media in an attempt to keep on top of the influx of questions and trending information.
The Calgary Police Service (CPS) began its social media presence in 2010 and, by the beginning of 2013, had reached 20,000 Twitter followers and 10,000 Facebook followers. The objective was to use social media to share important crime prevention messages and to engage local online communities. To achieve this, the service implemented two sworn constables into the role of digital communications officers (this grew to three members in 2017).
During this growth period, the service also developed an internal communications portal to help keep members informed about ongoing incidents and relevant service information. This included developing an internal newsroom platform for publishing all news releases and relevant service information. During the 2013 Calgary flood, both these internal and external communication platforms played a pivotal role in keeping the public and CPS members informed on the developing disaster.
The Calgary Police Service's first flood communication was in response to a request from local High River RCMP. The town of High River was overcome with rising waters and communications shut down in the immediate area leaving people stranded and needing immediate evacuation. The RCMP liaised with the CPS communications team and requested social media assistance to ask the public for rescue equipment such as front loaders and motorized boats.
These initial social media posts reached an audience of half a million people and demonstrated the power of this new communications platform. Within one week during the 2013 flood, the CPS social media following doubled in numbers. Shortly after, the communications team was transitioned into the operations centre at police headquarters in preparation for the encroaching flood.
Timely, two-way communication
Once the rising waters reached the City of Calgary, online requests for information began pouring in. Hampering the situation was a directive from command to all communications teams advising that no information be released without prior approval. By the time a question was received and the information was relayed and returned for distribution, it was already out of date. As a result, pressure was successfully applied to change this directive and allow for two-way information sharing. This was an important step in re-assuring the public, who began receiving timely responses rather than a cone of silence.
When the public's questions were at a peak, one technical drawback occurred: the Calgary Police Service's Twitter account was locked down. This occurs if too many messages are sent from one account and became known as "Twitter Jail." Luckily the account was reinstated within an hour with help from the local Calgary community and Twitter support.
The Calgary Police Service also brought in additional civilian members from other units to assist with answering questions online. These members had previously received basic social media training in preparation for disaster scenarios. At any given time during the flood, there was at least one social media officer assigned within the police operations centre allowing for the continuous sharing of critical information 24 hours a day.
To maintain this coverage, the digital communications officers began working a modified 24-hour shift pattern, often lasting up to 19 hours in duration. Working alongside these officers were the police service's media liaison members. They continued to work closely with the media and took ownership of updating service members via the internal newsroom. The advantage of both communications teams working together was that all distributed messages externally and internally remained accurate and concise.
A key tool to keeping communications staff updated throughout the flood was the use of email distribution lists. Every hour on the hour, internal updates were provided by all service departments including police, fire, water and roads to communication staff members using email distribution lists. At the same time, the emergency operations centre used a living emergency mapping tool accessible by communication members. These maps displayed real-time closed or flooded roads, inaccessible communities and many other important disaster-related information. This allowed for most questions from the public to be answered quickly and accurately.
Social media during the flood became the information portal for members of the public. In the first two days, CPS received 7,060 questions via Twitter alone. By end of week, that number had grown to more than 35,000. Although the service was unable to respond to every inquiry, certain social media techniques allowed for responses to be viewed by all social media followers. This meant that one response could help answer a question being asked by other community members.
Readying for the next disaster
Many lessons were learned as a result of the Calgary flood relating to internal and external communications. The Calgary Police Service did not have a call-out system in place prior to the disaster and as a result struggled to contact officers for additional support. Since this event, every member of the service has been issued a work phone and is now added to a service wide call-out list for future disaster situations.
Early during the flood, members realized that IT equipment installed within the police operations centre was unable to cope with the various social media requirements. As a result, the equipment needed to be updated during the first hours of the disaster. Luckily the process was resolved quickly but every organization should continuously check and update all equipment to avoid this scenario.
Another lesson learned from the flood was not to restrict communications members during a disaster. It's extremely important to listen and respond to the community especially early into a crisis. Often, the public just wants to be heard and a simple reply "we don't know, but we will have an update soon" is all that's required. This creates a situation where both the public and the media know where to go for accurate and reliable real-time information.
All emergency response agencies must understand the importance of providing accurate real-time information via social media. It requires proper training of personnel on social media and the organization should begin building a social media presence prior to any disaster. This online presence pre-disaster is a priority for any organization and allows the public to learn what official channels should be relied upon during a disaster. However, this does entail accepting a certain degree of accountability, mostly for police services.
Organizations should explore whether their accounts will be monitored 24-7 and what liability exists if a threat is made and no action is taken. Another factor to consider involves how to train social media operators and determining what restrictions should be imposed.
Agencies should also consider how many social media accounts they need, and not to jump too far ahead of what they can handle. Training is a huge part of successfully operating on social media. Members need to be continually educated on the changing face of social media platforms. Other interested members of the organization should be identified and provided some degree of social media training for use during a future disaster.
As of January 2017, the CPS has more than 160,000 Twitter followers and 85,000 Facebook followers. This is in stark contrast to pre-flood numbers and will pose significant challenges should a future disaster occur. To alleviate potential issues, the organization has officially verified all their social media accounts and implemented an online communications plan. Additional personnel continue to be trained on the use of social media and equipment is continually upgraded to mitigate future problems.
Calgary police continue to use new social media tools including Facebook community block watch groups. These groups, often set up by community members, allow for the sharing of information specific to a geographical location. Currently the Calgary police digital communications members actively participate in 50 such groups. This has resulted in increased community awareness, information sharing and education. Should a future disaster occur, it's anticipated these groups will be heavily relied upon to provide timely and accurate updates.
Social media is a valuable communications tool if used correctly. It's important for police agencies to be part of the many conversations that are taking place, ideally well before the next disaster occurs.