#thankacopthur is now #tacop

Last Wednesday I was listening to Glenn Beck on the Fox News Channel. I don’t remember what he was talking with regard to cops but he said something that got my attention. Beck said, “Instead of criticizing cops why don’t we thank them?” An idea was born and I tweeted it immediately:

I sent a DM (direct message) to my friend, Lauri Stevens, to see what she thought about the idea. She immediately tweeted me back:

I knew if the social media guru to cops liked the idea we were on to something. Even the day before the first Thank-A-Cop Thursday, the response from other tweeps across the U.S. was immediate:

Thank-A-Cop Thursday received immediate international support:

Thank-A-Cop Thursday’s debut steamrolled across Twitter:

John Solomon at “In Case of Emergency” blog wrote a post about Thank-A-Cop Thursday:

I lost track of how many times #ThankACopThur was RTd and shared with others in the Twitterverse..

The end result of Thank-A-Cop Thursday? Cops were encouraged and felt appreciated.

The original hashtag for Thank-A-Cop Thursday was #ThankACopThur . Based on the feedback we received from tweeps we determined that we needed to shorten the hashtag. The new hashtag for Thank-A-Cop Thursday is now #TACOP

The 2nd Thank-A-Cop-Thursday is this Thursday. Please join tweeps across the world as we say “thanks” to cops, police, law enforcement and their families for their service and sacrifice.

Mike Ellis is an emergency management professional with an acute appreciation for, and knowledge of the use of social media for communicating during emergencies. Currently, he is the Customer Relationship Manager for Emergency Communications Network (ECN). Ellis has been with ECN for 10 years. Prior to ECN, Ellis was a Promotion and Marketing Director for 18 years in the radio industry.