Social media is more than just cat memes and viral videos, especially for local law enforcement agencies.
Though most don’t track the numbers of cases solved or dogs found through their social media pages, police departments say they’ve had great success using social media to get the word out.
When it comes to attempting to identify a suspect, social media can play a “pretty big role,” according to Lt. Paul Davis of the Toledo Police Department.
On top of utilizing social media, the department has had a great deal of success by partnering with Crime Stoppers, he said.
Like other area law enforcement agencies, the Toledo Police Department uses platforms like Facebook for a variety of other reasons too, like helping locate a missing person or dog.
Social media gives people the opportunity to “participate in public safety with us,” he said.
“If we don’t know who somebody is, we know that somebody in the community is going to know who they are,” the lieutenant said. “The detectives will utilize social media through the public information office to get either those videos or the picture of the suspect out there because someone knows who that is.”