Law enforcement turns to Facebook for outreach

If you click “like” on the Bedford Police Department’s Facebook page, you’d know officers are concentrating on catching speeders on Smith and Oakwood streets this week.

If you “like” the Campbell County Sheriff’s Office, you’d see mug shots of the county’s Most Wanted.

Be “friends” with LPD Crime-Prevention, created by the Lynchburg Police Department, and you can learn of upcoming fundraisers for police memorial week activities.

Law enforcement agencies increasingly are turning to Facebook as an immediate way to convey information and to gain insight from their communities.

Bedford Police Chief Jim Day started his department’s Facebook page in December and has drawn 485 “likes.” Day, who is the page’s administrator, posts everything from the location of upcoming radar enforcement areas to photographs of a recent fatal car crash on Independence Boulevard.

“We don’t mind people knowing where we run radar,” Day said. “We’d rather people not speed. Out goal is to make Bedford a safer community.”

The Bedford Police’s Facebook page draws about 500 people who monitor the page daily, though some days up to 2,500 look at the various posts.

“You can be going with it (Facebook) in no time at all and you can reach a lot of people worldwide,” Day said. Some of the department’s followers are overseas.

“I went to this training event that the Virginia State Police held and they were doing so many things with it. I thought we were losing a good opportunity to communicate with people.”

What Day hopes is that Bedford residents will use the page as an opportunity to communicate with the department, by telling them what streets need to be monitored for speeders, when there is suspicious activity in their neighborhoods and other things.

“I hope it will allow us to get a feel for what the community is seeing,” Day said.

Capt. Cindy Caldwell of the Campbell County Sheriff’s Office, said Sheriff Terry Gaddy thought starting a page would be a beneficial way of interacting with the community. The page began a few months ago.

Caldwell began posting the county’s most wanted criminals. She created a cold case file, posts weather alerts and photos of Atlas, the canine officer.

“I’m trying to post information that the public might not catch otherwise,” Caldwell said.

In Campbell County, there had been a string of thefts from cars, so Gaddy wrote a letter reminding people to refrain from leaving valuables in their car and to always lock their car doors. That letter was posted in the discussion section of the page.

Officer Doug Childress, of the Lynchburg Police Department, said its crime prevention page is a way for Neighborhood Watches, businesses and others to stay in contact with each other and the department.

 “Ours is brand-new,” Childress said. “We are just starting to get the word out.”

Childress said the benefit is real-time communication.

“There are almost 60 Neighborhood Watch groups in the city,” Childress said. “It’s a great way for these groups to talk to us.”

Corinne Geller, spokesperson for the Virginia State Police, said its page first launched last year and now has more than 25,000 followers.

“The goal is to keep the public informed of the various investigations and traffic safety endeavors and encourage the public to come to us with tips,” she said.

Geller said when wanted subjects are posted, the state police’s dispatch sees an uptick in calls regarding sightings, though no arrests can be directly linked to the Facebook page.

“Our original goal was to reach Virginians and to let them know what’s happening in their communities,” Geller said. “We try to keep it as fresh, up to date and relevant as to what we are doing.”