DETAILS have been released over complaints about North Yorkshire Police's use of social media.

Figures released under the Freedom Of Information Act for 2014 to 2016 (the most current figures available), showed there had been 14 complaints against the way officers had used Facebook and Twitter - five in 2014, four in 2015 and five in 2016.

Three of the complaints (one in each year), were over the belief that police accessed Facebook inappropriately, while two complaints were received in 2014 about officers posting inappropriate images on Facebook and two more were received in 2016 about "inappropriate comments on Facebook".

Management action was taken against three officers, while seven incidents led to no action. Management advice and informal advice were given to two officers, while one received a final written warning over one of the complaints.

Hannah Popplewell, corporate communications officer for digital with the force, said North Yorkshire Police started using social media in 2009 to help engage with the community, publish crime prevention advice and appeal for witnesses. The force's three main accounts have almost 200,000 followers, with 95,000 Facebook followers, 90,000 Twitter followers and 10,500 Instagram followers.

She said: "A key part of our digital media strategy is to encourage officers, PCSOs, police staff and specials to use social media to engage with their own communities. As such, we also have a network of more than 100 Twitter accounts and 30 Facebook pages which are managed by a wide variety of neighbourhood policing team, individual officers and specialist departments. These have anything from a few dozen to several thousand followers. These accounts are managed locally, giving them an authentic voice when communicating with the public, and enabling them to respond directly to local issues.

"This enables us to reach hundreds of thousands of people very quickly, which is particularly useful for crime prevention messages, highlighting incidents such as missing people or road traffic collisions and also show the ‘behind-the-scenes’ side of policing."

The force won national recognition for its use of digital media in 2015 and was shortlisted as a finalist in the 2016 Digital Entrepreneur Awards. Crime prevention campaigns promoting responsible drinking and property marking were both also finalists in the UK Public Sector Communications Awards in 2016.