But Professor O’Donnell, a former New York City police officer and prosecutor, said he thought there could be unintended consequences. Increased awareness of local crime, he said, could lead people to a greater feeling of vulnerability or to the conclusion that the police are not resolving the local crime problem — even if it is a problem they might not have been aware of had the beat-tweet not informed them.

Image Seattle officials have promised to give the public more information about the department, and have turned to Twitter to help.

The Seattle police have reasons to want to appear forthcoming. The department is in the middle of an internal overhaul as well as a court-directed settlement with federal prosecutors prompted by investigations that found a pattern of misconduct, including excessive force and ethnic and racial insensitivity. The Twitter program is one of 20 initiatives in 20 months announced this year by Mayor Mike McGinn — specifically No. 17, to “provide better information to the public.”

But will residents really want the minutiae of daily police life popping up on their smartphones or other devices? Police officials are not sure, but they say that if it lifts the veil even a bit about what they do, it could lead to more understanding of the rhythms — and sometimes the tedium — of their work.

Consider the “accident investigation” at 35th Avenue Southwest and Southwest Barton Street reported at 4:01 p.m. last Wednesday. Sounds as if it could be pretty dramatic, right? Officer Scott Luckie, a four-year veteran with the department, thought so, too. The radio dispatcher said a bicyclist and a car were involved, with possible injuries. So he responded with lights and siren, only to find a man sitting on the curb, unhurt, his bicycle undamaged, more angry than anything else, that a driver had cut him off on a corner.

“I was scared to death,” the bicyclist said.

He and the other responding officers milled around a bit, made sure the bike and biker were O.K., and drove away.

“A slow day is a good day — it means people aren’t out being stupid,” Officer Luckie said, back behind the wheel.

Critics who track social media trends say an automated community bulletin board like Seattle’s will certainly be fast and cost-effective. But a system run by computers also has the drawback of, well, being run by computers.