Protecting and serving in the digital age
In the 10 years since Facebook was created, the social networking site has become a thread in the fabric of 21st century culture. Everyone has a Facebook page: teens, college students, parents, grandparents. And police departments.
In a 2014 study, research group LexisNexis found that social media use among law enforcement agencies is on the rise and is predicted to continue rising. The survey reported that 25 percent of police departments in the United States use social media sites on a daily basis, up from 16 percent in 2012.
The reliance on the technology is expected to expand, with 78 percent of current users planning to use it even more in the coming year, the study stated.
Columbia Police Department Assistant Chief Michelle Jones said CPD has had an active Facebook account since 2013.
We were actually the first department of the city of Columbia who started using Facebook, said Jones, who manages the Facebook account. I finally got the okay after a year of pushing the idea. The holdup was really making sure we had good policies and procedures in place for things we would be posting and things we would not allow on our page.
CPD heavily uses its Facebook page to alert the community to crimes in the area or missing children, and to educate the public on how to be safe when trick-or-treating on Halloween or how to avoid falling victim to credit card scams.
It has been very beneficial to us, Jones said. We have solved so many crimes through Facebook where somebody would contact us and let us know, Hey, I saw this on your Facebook page, and I know who that is.
Jones said that about a year ago, she posted surveillance footage from a shoplifting incident on CPDs Facebook page, and was contacted almost immediately by someone who said they knew who the shoplifter was.
Someone posted his (the suspects) name under the comments, and I deleted it real quick and sent her a message saying, What number can you be reached at? Wed really like to contact you and get more information on this. The informant was very helpful and gave us everything we needed to know.
Facebook posts have also helped CPD to locate runaway juveniles and gain leads on robberies, Jones said.
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Protecting and serving in the digital age