Delta police have harkened to the birdcall.

Tweet, that is.

The police force is plugging into the global social media craze and has set up an eight-member committee of police officers, staff and dispatch centre workers to see how best it can use social media to augment its service to the municipality's residents.

"We're always doing analysis of where we are," said Const. Ciaran Feenan, spokesman for the Delta police. "Certainly it's a media that's being used a lot. Certainly it's growing."

Globally, 845 million people are using Facebook and 383 million are on Twitter. Feenan said the Delta police are contemplating setting up a Facebook page, but he's been on Twitter (@deltapolice), since Jan. 1 and has 830 followers so far. "We're doing quite well."

The Delta police use Twitter to relay community events, alert followers to missing persons investigations and provide "real-time" traffic reports.

They also use it for recruiting new officers, relaying crime prevention and departmental initiatives, and are using Twitter to drum up participants for the Cops for Cancer campaign in the fall.

"It's a demographic we need to reach," Feenan said. "It's just another medium for us."

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