Friday night, you can ride along in a Niagara Regional Police Cruiser, through twitter.

From the NRP's dispatch centre in St. Catharines, constable Rich Gadreau will tweet every time a unit is sent to a call from 7pm Friday-3am Saturday.

The NRP's dedicated social media officer says the virtual "ride along" is meant to boost the force's number of twitter followers.

Gadreau says it will also give people "an education" about what police do.  He says people often take policing for granted, not realizing the "huge" number & different types of calls officers deal with.

Gadreau will be tweeting all night form the Niagara Regional Police's official twitter account, using the hashtag #ridealong