Social Media Guidelines
Our social media channels
These guidelines are in place to help create a safe environment for the public on all social media channels run by Nottinghamshire Police.
The Force has multiple social media platforms including:
The main force social media pages are run, monitored and maintained by the Corporate Communications team with input from other key departments.
Our social media guidelines
The public facing element of the main force social media accounts is generally monitored from 9am to 5pm, Monday to Friday, except on public holidays.
Direct messages on all our main social accounts are only monitored during the times mentioned above, and the force is not able to take reports of crimes over any of our social media channels at any time.
Non-emergency incidents should be reported via 101, through our website or our Live Chat. Find out how to contact us via other means.
Our social media platforms aim to educate the general public on crime prevention and safety. We also aim to keep the public updated with community led issues and engage with as many Nottinghamshire residents as possible.
Across all platforms, Nottinghamshire Police reserves the right to remove comments if they are offensive in their nature or deemed to violate Nottinghamshire Police's social media policy.
Your comment may be removed if:
- You have identified a victim, witness or suspect by any means which potentially affects his or her personal safety. For example; names, address, school, place of work etc.
- You have identified a serving police officer in a manner which potentially affects his or her personal safety, threatens violence or is grossly derogatory.
- You have used offensive language such as:
- Swearing or a profanity
- Racial or homophobic slurs or language which targets a protected characteristic in a derogatory manner
- Comments which are grossly offensive or incite violence
- Images of an offensive nature will also be removed
- You have published yours, or anyone else's, personal information, such as contact details
- You have ‘spammed’ our accounts by posting the same message, or very similar messages, repeatedly. In these circumstances, if your comment/reply does not violate other social media guidelines, one comment/reply will remain on our page
- Your comments could be perceived to be threatening or abusive to other community members
- You have included comments which could potentially leave the force in contempt of court. This is any material which could influence members of the jury in an ongoing or imminent trial and this is punishable in a court of law
These comments could include:
- References to someone’s previous convictions
- Statements about a person’s character
- Evidence seeming to link a person directly to the crime of which they have been accused
- Any other suggestions that a person is guilty
When proceedings are ‘active’, the above content cannot be posted and the Facebook user is in contempt of court. Proceedings are ‘active’ when:
- A person is charged
- A person has been arrested
- An arrest warrant is issued
- A summons is issued
You can read more about contempt of court on the CPS website.
Pre-election period (previously known as purdah)
Please do not use any of our pages, profiles or social media platforms to promote party political messages or other content. We will remove any comments that may be seen to compromise our political neutrality.
Blocking, unfollowing or muting on social media
If an individual continually (on multiple occasions) violates the above specified social media guidelines, Nottinghamshire Police reserves the right to block their account indefinitely.
Reporting crime
Our social media accounts are not monitored 24/7.
Please do not use social media to report crime or incidents. If a crime is in progress or there is a threat to life always dial 999. For non-emergencies please report online or dial 101.
Alternatively, you can report completely anonymously to independent charity Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111, or by going to their website.
