Blah, Blah, Blah…Waco Police Starting to do More of That!!

By Sgt. W. Patrick Swanton, Spokesman for Waco Police Department

What!!?? The police want people to LIKE and FOLLOW us??? Absolutely!

Recently the Waco Police Department has opened up several new lines of communication with our citizens. We have jumped feet first into the hi-tech world of Social Media and so far have been greeted with an abundance of likes and followers. Social media geeksters are even sharing and re-tweeting our stuff!!

In our computer savvy, fast paced world we felt a need to be able to provide an instant information source for our citizens to keep them abreast of our day to day activities in and around our area. What better way than to use the already invented wheel of Social Media such as Twitter and Facebook?

Our detective division was the first to guinea pig (easy on the side comments!!) a Facebook page and we realized almost immediately how popular this would be. Detectives posted videos and photos of suspects committing crimes and were immediately able to receive tips leading to the arrest of those individuals. It is really quite amazing how much our community wants to help in making our neighborhoods safer.

The main Waco Police Department page at www.facebook.com/wacopolicedepartment is also entwined with our Twitter account @wacopolice so we can serve two totally different sets of our community. This page is designed to give our followers an up to date line of communication for news worthy events, and emergency communications such as weather, breaking criminal activities, traffic hazards and events that could immediately impact their lives. We also give you snapshots of common day to day on goings inside your police department.

The detective page www.facebook.com/WPDNSS  is designed to allow our followers to see individuals that commit crimes and to help make identification so we can obtain warrants of arrest. The administrator for this page also injects appropriate humor and fun! Fans and followers of our Social Media accounts can expect to be not only enlightened but at times appropriately entertained as well.

The sites may not be for the faint of heart.  At times we will provide a peek into a world that, quite honestly, some folks would prefer to not know about. Examples of this can be radio traffic quotes from officers or a bit more detail on crimes committed in our community that some may find disgusting. We do, however, keep it on the level of making our citizens aware of the real life that unfortunately does rear its ugly head in our fair city. We always try to have a learning point as well. For example: Stay away from crack as it tends to make you forget things…like your name!! Or, in the case of a wife-beater’s mug shot whose family does not like the fact that it is public information and posted for all to see, we kind of look at it like this… do the crime your mug makes primetime!!

On the light side, our pages really can be a bit amusing from time to time. Some of the things we see in our cop world will not only make you laugh but will simply amaze you with what some folks are capable of, good and bad.

We invite all to be our friends, followers, fans, and, yes, even groupies as you, our citizens, are truly what we are about. Making you, your family, your neighbors and neighborhoods safer is a responsibility we will all need to take on to be successful. We can do this, Waco! A big part of making our city safe is opening lines of communication never before tried. We welcome feedback and responses and look forward to chatting with you on the World Wide Web!!

This week’s Blog was written by Sgt. W. Patrick Swanton, Spokesman for Waco Police Department. (Facebook: WacoPoliceDepartment; Twitter: WacoPolice)

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