• Queensland Police Service

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03 August 2011From the Executive Summary

I am pleased to present to you this case study which documents our significant and what has been described as world leading efforts in using social media for public engagement and emergency disaster responsiveness.

It has been at times a challenging path, but through good will and team work on the part of the community of Queensland, we have established what I believe to be a best practise example of the use of social media by a government department for both engaging with the public and informing frontline colleagues in times of a disaster. In recognising this, I felt it appropriate to document our experience so others could learn from and apply some of the lessons we learned.

Our social media strategy centered on public communications and community engagement issues. This was arguably during the most difficult period of natural disasters in the history of Queensland with more than 90 precent of the state disaster-declared. Through the use of social media, we were able to communicate directly to the people of Queensland which was invaluable, helping us become more effective in supporting and serving the needs of the community.