This article reports briefly on research into the relationship between Twitter use by community police officers and citizens’ perceived safety. To this end, multiple relevant determinants of safety perceptions were included in the study: assessment of objective safety, perceptions of quality of life and social capital, risk perception and opinion on the police. The use of Twitter proved to have a modest, yet significant impact: followers on Twitter report a lower assessment of objective safety and a more positive opinion on the police. No direct, significant relation was found between the use of Twitter by the neighbourhood police officer and citizens’ perceived safety.

This article reports on a conceptual model that provides insight into the relationship between Twitter use by community policing officers and citizens’ safety perceptions. The model has been tested using data from a relatively large-scale survey study and these results are supporting the model. Furthermore, a small impact of Twitter use has been found on feelings of safety and judgments about the police. To confirm these findings, further research on a larger scale is necessary. To find out more about the exact positive and negative effects of Twitter use by community policing officers, a more experimental design is required.