Award winning police inspector, Michael Brown has lost his right to use Twitter. According to BBC, police in the West Midlands area of England claim that Brown has allegedly been misusing the social media website and therefore decided to suspend his account. Bob Jones, the Police and Crime commissioner, claimed he would raise questions with the chief constable because he never saw an issue with Michael Brown's tweets but deemed them as "really good news". Michael Brown's twitter page, @MentalHealthCop, was a page dedicated to informing cops about mental health issues, and how to deal with incidents concerning their mental health.
In 2011, Brown's blog won The National Mental Health Charity Mind's 2012 digital media award and his twitter reached about 16,000 followers, according to The Guardian. Michael Brown's goal through his website and blog are to inform police like himself about issues they all may have faced or may face in the future. The West Midlands police however claim that "Certain aspects of the officer's communication are currently being investigated for alleged misuse of a force account and as such it would be inappropriate for the account to continue whilst further enquiries are made." It seems that they are brushing it off as protocol. The police force admits to imposing necessary restrictions on social network sites and Assistant Ch Con Garry Forsyth adds that he "can't imagine any organisation that would want its employees to be openly critical of it - or indeed allow it." It is understandable that the force would take action if they deem any behavior suspicious but there seems as if there is something to hide in this situation. Though the West Midlands Police Force mentions suspicions they are not specific which causes questions to be raised.
Are they hiding something? Is there there something the people of West Midland should be looking further into? What exactly is it that they are afraid Michael Brown may disclose?