Mobile Police Department Website Analysis

After spending some time delving into the contents on the website of the Mobile Police Department, a few things became apparent to me. Mobile Police Department’s website meets its intended purpose of informing the public about threats to its safety in an easily understood way. While this is a simple purpose for thee website is community engagement, there seems to be a lack of content. Far too much of the content on this website focus on the department’s organizational structure, it could significantly improve this website if more time were spent crime prevention and public safety. The basic technical components of are divided among three categories to: 1) inform the reader, 2) help the reader understand, and 3) provide an ease of access …show more content…
Despite this, there seems to be a minimal amount of information presented to the audience. Nothing is offered to the public about traffic violations, home defense, what to do in case of natural disasters, newly changed laws, or anything of that nature. It’s important that this page has information like this listed. It is the police department’s job to protect and assist their community. They are the first to respond to key events like this. Furthermore, it would be beneficial for the Mobile Police Department to include information that would prevent victimization. This would help the population of Mobile protect themselves from crime and inevitably reduce the crime rate in the city. While the quality of information offered is good, the quantity is severally lacking. This probably turns a good bit of their audience to go search for other webpages. While information presented to civilians is lacking, the information presented to potential applicants is much more beneficial. The information presented to the secondary audience is more concise. Seven links are offered to potential applicants where a majority of the information needed to apply is available. For example, the requirements of an officer, and an overview of the training process. In order for this site to be successful and fulfill its purpose it needs to expand the …show more content…
That being said, the organization is a bit odd. The audience almost has to know specifically what they are looking for and how to find it. The manor that this site is organized in keeps everything in specific categories, except for the press release section and the announcements sections. This, appearance wise, is very displeasing when you look at it. Not to mention there are certain things that are unneeded on this page. For example, on the right sections there is a tab where the user can download forms and there is another section on the top where the user can access forms (see left). There are multiple occasions of this on the website. It would be more beneficial for the site to fill either of those spaces with more information like what was mentioned in the previous paragraph. This would allow Mobile Police Department to give the community pertinent information to their safety. When it comes to the information presented to potential candidates, it is highly organized as well. That being said, it is not very attractive to these candidates. One to two pictures are offered per category. Candidates need something more motivating. Candidates need to see videos of the training experience, or operations Officers conduct. Videos will further motivate candidates to join Mobile Police Department. Removing unneeded information would, not only give the site a less cluttered appearance, but it would assist the