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Joe Imel is General Manager of the Daily News
Joe Imel is General Manager of the Daily News
“Report of a male, dressed in a Leprechaun costume and wearing puppy slippers, that was trying to steal from the Med Center cafeteria. He was last seen headed towards Graves Gilbert.”
I tweeted that last night after hearing it broadcast from a Bowling Green Police Department dispatcher to an officer. More than 71,000 tweets later it still amazes me what I hear come across the scanner. I joined Twitter in 2008 but really started tweeting what I heard on the scanner, within reason, about 10 years ago.
Now with more that 65,000 followers on the app, about 3.9 million views a month and every day at least one person telling me what their favorite Tweet is, it has grown into something I never imagined. I use it to keep people informed and push out stories from the Daily News that are follow-ups to initial Tweets.
Well, as I have written before, I have listened to the police scanner for 37 years. That’s just how news photographers cover the community, listening for fires, wrecks, standoffs and deaths to keep our readers informed.
You know, I’m a storyteller at heart, visually, verbally and these days via Twitter. On the sidelines of Zach’s soccer games, I would always relay to the parents about the crazy, funny and sad things I heard on the scanner. Mine were stories of good people, bad people, naked people and intoxicated people whose antics filled the police and emergency band airwaves.
Fast forward to the emergence of social media in our lives with some of these oldies but goodies; Friendster (2002), LinkedIn (2003), Myspace (2003), Facebook (2004), Reddit (2005), YouTube (2005), Twitter (2006), Tumblr (2007). I jumped on the bandwagon. Even then, Facebook was a dumpster fire to me and that fire just grows and grows. I was attracted to Twitter for its brevity and the fact that it seemed more organic. You could control what you saw in your feed.
But I was unsure of what to say and I knew nobody wanted to know the inane things that people overshare today. It really came together when I was listening to the scanner and heard BGFD knocked out for a fire alarm at SCA Personal Care, where incontinence care products are made. The dispatcher sent multiple fire units and advised there was water flow from the sprinklers. I laughed at the thought there was water flow at the adult diaper plant.
From then on I decided to Tweet what I heard on the scanner when listening without editorializing. At first, I really focused on the abuse of our law enforcement, first responder and emergency medical services resources by the same people, groups and families. Calling the police because your child won’t go to school, your adult brother won’t leave your room or calling an ambulance for a toothache or a stubbed toe. But that was quickly overtaken by the sheer volume of crazy that happens every day.
I never expected the account to help find so many lost pets, document the never-ending saga of a flooded Fairview Plaza, or be the topic of conversation at so many places. You either know about the @joeimel Twitter account or you don’t.
Over the years I have tweeted funny things, sad things, tense moments and traumatic things. There is no way to pull the best of the best, you’ll just have to go back through and read them. Two that stood out and tugged at my heart were the report of a little boy on Halloween walking up to strangers asking them to take him trick or treating because his parents were passed out drunk at home, or the elderly lady that kept calling for an ambulance, not because she was sick, but because she was lonely. I could go on and on telling those kinds of stories.
I do have a few rules I follow. I don’t tweet right away if it is an officer safety issue, drug tips, full names of people unless they come from a newspaper story or a police report. I don’t tweet the word suicide, I will say no foul play suspected in the death. I stay away from suicide attempts unless they happen in public and cause disruption.
In this day and age of communication via cellphones and social media, why should you not know what is happening when you hear sirens, see the coroner’s van in your neighborhood or see law enforcement, EMS or first responders on your block? All of the events that happen in Bowling Green and Warren County are part of the fabric that weaves us together. As we grow, so will the scanner calls, that is inevitable.
A lot of people have tried to emulate this account and failed. Not because there is a secret recipe, but because no one is willing to listen to a scanner for 10-12 hours a day or have the time or a job that lets them. Also, my sense of humor is built for this. You have to be able to pick out the gems in all of the conversations that are flying back and forth and lastly, you have to have a sense of news.
I would likely reach more people on a different platform, but I’m not sure that any other one works as well as Twitter. Social media is a pillar of many people’s daily lives, with 84% of Americans using at least one social media network; Facebook 2.9 billion users, YouTube 2.2 billion users, WhatsApp 2 billion users, Instagram 2 billion users, TikTok 1 billion users, Snapchat 538 million users, Pinterest 444 million users, Reddit 430 million users, LinkedIn 250 million users and finally Twitter with 217 million users.
As I wrap up my weekly column, I have to share this tweet that just came across the scanner, “Report of a disturbance at the UAW Hall on Plum Springs Loop. There are 300 people on scene at a Turkish wedding and 40 of them are in a fight.”
Would I do it again, no. Will I ever stop, likely not.
– Daily News General Manager Joe Imel can be reached at 270-783-3273 or via email at jimel@bgdaily news.com.
(Joe Imel/photo@bgdailynews.com)
Joe Imel is General Manager of the Daily News
What’s it like to be the general manager of the Daily News? Well, the news never sleeps and rarely do I.
Joe Imel is the General Manager of the Daily News. Imel is an award winning photojournalist that has been with the paper for more than 31 years.
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