ABSTRACT
The aim of this chapter is to analyze the public use of social media by Polish police. The use of social media by law enforcement agencies is now a common practice; the most popular social media platform among Polish police departments between 2010 and 2019 was Facebook. In Poland, there is no single set of instructions for police officers on how to properly use social media. The literature offers some general tips on how the police should maintain a social media profile; in practice, however, communication strategies vary among police departments. One strategy aimed at obtaining followers is publishing funny content and posts with animal images. This strategy was successfully used, for example, by the New South Wales Police Force in Australia. Based on the assumption that funny content and posts with animal images may be a trigger to get more followers, the chapter will focus on describing and analyzing this practice. It also verifies a hypothesis on the average audience reaction (engagement) to posts included in the “funny and cute content” strategy (K9, Service Horse, Funny Content). The data used in the analysis were gathered from the Facebook pages of 13 Polish provincial police departments, covering the activities of police units between March 10, 2018, and January 26, 2020 (over 22 months).
