Policing and Social Media

In a world where authority is increasingly performed, mediated, and judged online, policing now unfolds as much on screens as on streets.
Policing and Social Media: Social Control in an Era of Digital Media examines how police agencies in Canada manage, use, and control social media as part of their public-facing work. Christopher J. Schneider shows how shifts in information technology and communication formats have reshaped the institutional practices of policing, arguing that police engagement with social media aligns with the platforms’ underlying logic. As police adopt these tools, policing itself evolves to emphasize new forms of public conditioning, self-promotion, and the expansion of social control. Fully updated, each chapter of the second edition presents a case study focused on a different platform or format, while also developing analytical and methodological approaches suited to understanding contemporary policing in digital spaces. The result is a book that demonstrates how police presence on social media is not merely communicative but consequential, with significant implications for power, visibility, and accountability.