VANCOUVER, BC--(Marketwire - Mar 26, 2012) - LAwS Communications today announced the ConnectedCOPS™ Awards, a new awards program for law enforcement using social media. The ConnectedCOPS Awards were created with the intent of recognizing the great work being done with social media by individual sworn officers and law enforcement agencies. Lauri Stevens of LAwS Communications made the announcement at The SMILE Conference™, running March 26 - 28 in Vancouver. Nominations for the 2012 ConnectedCOPS Awards will be accepted April 1 through May 31, 2012 on the ConnectedCOPS.net website.
"The time has come to honor some of the great work being done by law enforcement with open source technologies," stated Stevens. "While the use of social media by law enforcement overall has a ways to go, there are agencies and law officers who are doing incredible things with these tools. These awards are just a beginning to honor their great work."
The ConnectedCOPS Awards consist of six categories:
- Award of Excellence at a Large Agency
- Award of Excellence at a Small Agency
- Leadership Award (Individual)
- Top Cop Award (Individual)
- Social Media Investigator Award (Individual) (Sponsored by LexisNexis)
- Social Media Incident Management Award (Individual or Agency) (Sponsored by Nixle)
"The ConnectedCOPS Awards will honor the best work from across the globe. They are open to any officer and agency in the world," Stevens continued. "We are also excited to announce our sponsors, which include Nixle and LexisNexis."
Award partners, who will promote and judge the awards, include Crime Stoppers International, GovLoop, Law Officer.com, PoliceOne.com, Public Communications Worldwide and The Social Media Monthly Magazine.
An international panel of judges will evaluate the nominations and determine one winner in each category. Awards will be given at The SMILE Conference in Richmond, Va. in September 2012.
For more information on the ConnectedCOPS Awards, please visit http://ConnectedCOPS.net/ConnectedCOPSAwards.
About LAwS Communications
LAwS Communications has been providing interactive media advice to law enforcement since 2005. Open Source communication technologies available today allow organizations to efficiently gather and distribute information like never before. LAwS Communications works with law enforcement professionals to help make sense of the tools available, help agencies craft a plan and social media policy as well as provide the training needed. LAwS Communications can help law enforcement organizations not only understand why an agency should take advantage of social media technologies, but also how to leverage these vast resources. LAwS Communications is located in Newbury, Massachusetts. It is a subsidiary of Stevens & Associates Inc.
For more information, please visit http://lawscommunications.com.