Our main social media channels are listed below:

• Twitter
• YouTube
• Facebook
• Instagram @essexpfcc
• LinkedIn

These accounts are monitored by the Communications & Engagement team in office hours.
We generally work between 08:00 and 17:00 from Monday to Friday.

Outside of these hours, including at weekends and on Bank Holidays, our accounts are not monitored unless one of the team is:
• covering an evening meeting
• in emergency situations
• if a member of the team is involved in a corporate event

Our Corporate Accounts

Our Twitter is a feed of:

• PFCC news
• updates and news from Essex Police & Essex County Fire & Rescue Service
• events and engagement activities
It also includes re-tweets from other accounts and partners, and answers to your questions.

The Facebook account is updated less often and concentrates on PFCC news and events.

Whilst we act on and respond to complaints made via social media these are not officially logged.
If you would like to make a formal complaint, see our Complaints page.
We answer questions and queries via both Facebook and Twitter. However, in emergency or crisis situations you should check Twitter. This will be used as our key communication channel, alongside our website.

Response Policy

• at times of emergency we may not be able to respond to individual messages straight away due to the volume we receive. We will focus on sending important updates and updating our website
• most questions will require us to consult other departments, so please bear with us whilst we do this. We aim to respond within 25 days
• we do not discuss private or sensitive information over social media so may ask to take the conversation offline

Where we are uncertain about a particular issue, we may link in other third parties who may provide you with more information e.g. the Police and Essex County Fire and Rescue Service, other blue light services, health partners or other councils.

Help Us to Help You

If you are tweeting us to report a crime, please check Essex Police first which has a variety of online forms where people can report issues. If you do not wish to do this, please be specific about the issue, where it is, and provide as many details as possible. We will respond to:
• clear questions about our services and policies
• general enquiries
• reports about our services

We may not respond to:
• vague/general statements
• insults
• repetitive aggression
• inappropriate comments
• repetitive questioning by an individual once original question has been replied to

House Rules

• no obscene language or language that demonstrates discriminatory, racist, abusive or unlawful behaviour. We reserve the right to block such users as a result
• please do not publish pictures of our staff, their names or their contact details on social media. If you would like to make a formal complaint about a member of staff, you can do so via our complaints procedure
• threatening / aggressive language or behaviour towards staff will be warned and then blocked