Effects of Social Media in Shaping Perceptions Towards Police Officers as Perceived by the Community

Social media plays a vital role in today's modern world that serves as more than just a source of entertainment; people now access various social media online to be aware of everything imaginable including whether or not the police carried out the job properly. Social media makes it possible since almost everyone has a smartphone with a camera in their pocket, so any contact between police and the public is available to be recorded and shared with the world in an instant. This research undertaking employed a descriptive method design and utilized a self-made survey questionnaire that was distributed to one hundred twenty (120) respondents who are the members of the community that are equally selected using stratified random sampling from four chosen barangays in Lucena City such as Barangay Ibabang Iyam, Barangay Ibabang Dupay, Barangay Gulang-Gulang and Barangay Cotta. The formula of the simple percentage method and the weighted mean was used to analyze, evaluate and interpret the data collected. Additionally, the data gathered reveals that Facebook is the most common social media platform used by the public in monitoring police activities, issues involving police officers circulating on social media plays a crucial role in the image of police officers and PNP organization in general as it often affects the way how the respondents perceive the police, people do not trust the police officer whenever they are in public places, there is the person who still sees the goodness of police officer and does not let the social media affects their perception to the positive image of a police officer. With that, the researchers crafted a social community training program entitled: Social Media Etiquette with the theme “Perceptions of the Public to Police-Officer related news” that consists of different practices in social media that trigger the public to comment negatively on the police officer which is drawn based on the findings of this study specifically the different police activities that can be seen on social media, the different possible thoughts and perceptions of the community to the police officers, and perks of having a positive image of the police officer which is based on the findings of this study.