It is used and abused by almost 500 million people a day and, now, it is a part of the Lowndes County Sheriff’s Office’s presence in the community. “It” is Facebook and it is here to stay.
“We got our Facebook page up and going a couple of weeks ago,” Sheriff Mike Arledge said. “It’s a work in progress for us. I wanted a more professional looking web page, but we didn’t have the money for it in the budget. So we decided to use Facebook; we can use it for free.”
Arledge said he is using the social media platform as a way to keep the public informed and also as a tool to help find criminals. “We will be putting wanted persons on the Facebook and there is also some information so people can call us and give us anonymous crime tips. The tips go directly to one of our investigators. We may not know how useful the tips are for several months,” he said.
But providing timely information to the public is Arledge’s main goal. He said the site will also include major arrest photos and information, missing person information and other facts such as this one posted Tuesday afternoon: “Did you know that as of 04-24-12, Lowndes County has 71 Registered Sex Offenders? If you know someone that is a convicted sex offender and has not registered, please let us know. If you are not sure if they’re registered or not, go to this site and you can check. Mississippi law states they must register no matter how long ago the offense occurred.”
A study done by the popular website Digital Buzz Blog claims more than three billion pieces of information are shared on Facebook weekly. It is considered a cornerstone of most social media strategies for larger companies, and it is used by 65 percent of all adults using the Internet. Arledge said it was time for his department to accept and utilize social media.
“You have people that don’t even watch the news or read newspapers, but they stay on Facebook,” he said. “A lot of people have said they’ve seen some of the things that we’ve done by checking our page. I think this will be a good thing. I’ve head a lot of positive comments so far.”
A growing trend
Law enforcement agencies using social media is a growing trend. The Oktibbeha County Sheriff’s Department has a modern website along with Facebook and Twitter accounts. Clay County Sheriff Eddie Scott said his department will be next on board.
“We are in the process of starting a Facebook page,” Scott said. “We hope to have it up soon and we will be starting a Twitter page, too. I’m not real certain what Twitter does, but some of my deputies think it will be good for us to have one. I’ve never been very computer savvy, but it’s something we have to do. In this day and age, you have people that won’t even make phone calls; it’s all about texting and being on Facebook.”
Jeff Clark was previously a reporter for The Dispatch.
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