Canadian police told to get twittering

From The Ottawa Citizen comes news of police use of the increasingly popular social network, Twitter:

Aiming to do a better job of informing the public and city officials than they did during the Tamil protests that jammed downtown in April, Ottawa’s police are planning to experiment with Twitter and other social media to get word of major incidents out more quickly…

Twitter and other social media could be used to provide updates on traffic congestion, detours, or major criminal activity, the report recommends. Other emergency services could also use Twitter to keep the public informed of major fires, health alerts, flooding, power outages or severe weather.