Recent unrest in some of the UK's towns and cities has thrown social media into the spotlight as a facilitator of mob violence and looting. But how do the good guys use the medium?

Stuart Hyde, Deputy Chief Constable of Cumbria Police Service is the national lead for E-Crime Prevention and President of the Society for the Policing of Cyberspace. An avid Tweeter, Stuart has been instrumental in developing the Service's use of social media to facilitate community involvement as well as to support operations.

This very topical discussion will be wide ranging, and subjects may include:

• Examples of the Police’s use of social media to support operations and community engagement;

• A perspective of the impact of the recent phone hacking revelations on the Police Service’s reputation and that of the press;

• Whether these events have had an impact on trust in the Police and how communicators and senior officers are responding to this;

• Whether any loss of trust, and the recent disorder have caused the Police to re-think their use of communication in general and social media in particular;

• How professional communicators should be integrating new media into the mix of communication channels; and what is critical to their effective integration based upon experience in the Police Service.

We hope you'll be able to join us for this fascinating evening.

Ticket price includes welcome drinks and nibbles.