- A number of forums allow citizens to help other citizens (sharing prevention tips, missing persons, caring for victims, discussing problems, etc.) via different fora, newsgroups, facebook groups, etc.
- Others offer help for victims, such as the Dutch initiative:
- Unofficial news of police and firefighters: https://de.nepoli.eu/
- In the Netherlands the P2000 networks on various social media channels, is used for incident reports, based on the official C2000 network for police, firemen and ambulance professionals: http://www.p2000-online.net/
- Citizens also use smartphone applications to inform of different real-time road incidents (e.g. Waze, Socialdrive). While these apps can be used to share useful information in a very immediate form, they also can create security breaches, according to some LEAs and are therefore being discussed controversially.
Image Source: facebook
DIY ACCOUNTS
Authorities can be slow in adopting social media.
Therefore, citizens provide security relevant information to other citizens by themselves.