Social Media And Police-Community Relations: A Case Study Of The Namibian Police Force’s Facebook Page

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to establish if the people who have 'liked' the NAMPOL Facebook page found the page useful from the purview of police-community relations; to determine if there is a difference in perception of police-community relations between those who have “liked” the page and those who have not liked the page; to determine if demographic variables impacted respondents' views on interactivity and engagement of NAMPOL's Facebook page. The study involved a survey of online respondents and Focus Group Discussions (FDGs) for Windhoek residents who did not ‘like’ the NAMPOL Facebook page. Similar to international studies that found that most public relations practitioners are using new media the same ways as they do with traditional media, this study, established that the public relations division of NAMPOL is not making use of the power of social media by actively engaging the community as equal partners on Facebook. This is despite special emphasis by NAMPOL on the use of ICTs as well as involving the community as equal partners in its functions and activities. Additionally, the study determined that the public and in particular the youths, who are a majority on social media, are also not fully exploiting the power of social media which are seen as powerful, and if used correctly can change the modern communication sphere for the better. The platform is one which they use to receive information and not necessarily engage the police to their advantage. They are rather passive recipients of information/updates from NAMPOL as very few reported that they wanted to interact with the police on this platform.