The RCMP in Atlantic Canada has been shortlisted for the international ConnectedCops award recognizing the use of social media to aid policing.
The nomination recognizes a joint social media campaign run during National Safe Driving Week in 2015. The RCMP in New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, and Newfoundland and Labrador collaborated on the campaign, which was developed to remind the public that there is never an excuse for driving while impaired. The campaign used memes, a common image format on social media, to share the excuses police officers often hear when conducting traffic stops with drivers believed to be impaired. The goal of the campaign was to prevent fatalities during Safe Driving Week, and this goal was achieved, with no impaired driving fatalities in any of the Atlantic Provinces that week.
The RCMP in Atlantic Canada is nominated in the Social Media Campaign Management category. The other nominees are the RCMP in Nova Scotia and the Hampshire Constabulary, Hampshire, United Kingdom. This is the fifth year for the ConnectedCOPS awards recognizing exceptional use of social media by law enforcement agencies around the world.
This is the first ConnectedCops Award nomination for the RCMP in Atlantic Canada and the RCMP in Nova Scotia. The RCMP in New Brunswick has been nominated for and won two previous ConnectedCops Awards.
The winner will be announced at the Social Media Internet Law Enforcement conference in Long Beach, California on April 3, 2017.