Niagara Regional Police has joined the twitterverse.

Over the long weekend, tweets quietly started going out from the service's official account.  Constable Rich Gadreau the NRP's dedicated social media officer is behind the tweets, keeping track at the office & on his Blackberry

Gadreau tells 610 CKTB News he's still establishing the twitter account & working to get a facebook account online.  The goal is to increase the NRP's communication with & availability to the people who live in Niagara & visitors too.

Gadreau says the platforms will be a useful tool for police to push information out about things like road closures. He points to Nik Wallenda's walk over Niagara Falls & the Tragically Hip concert in Niagara-on-the-Lake as events where police could've used social media to keep people in the loop.

There's a benefit for police too.  Gadreau has heard from other forces that information pulled from twitter or facebook can be turned into something useful to be passed on to front line officers.

He stresses though that social media isn't the way to file a complaint with police or to call for help.

Niagara Regional Police haven't exactly been quick to embrace social media, but Gadreau says they want to do things well & didn't to rush into anything.

Gadreau expects to fully launch the NRP's twitter account and Facebook page in August.  You can still follow the service on twitter under the handle @NiagRegPolice.