Washington police to quash rumors via social media
On Saturday morning, Washington police Chief Robert Wilson got a call from Mayor Scott Putnam, who heard there was an overnight homicide in the West End neighborhood of the city.
It wasn’t true, but the rumor bothered Wilson.
At Monday’s City Council agenda meeting, he offered suggestions for disseminating correct information and suppressing inaccuracies.
“We need to be able to stop this now, when rumors get out there,” Wilson said.
With mayor and council’s blessing, Wilson named Cpl. Von Lacock as acting social media officer and got the department’s Facebook page up and running Tuesday morning.
“I support it,” Putnam said. “It kills a bunch of rumors before they can gain any traction.”
The initiative comes at no additional expense; city-contracted web designer PHDesigned will oversee the site and Lacock is volunteering his time.
Lacock will post accident, traffic and fire information in addition to notices about upcoming city events that may affect parking and traffic, such as parades or festivals. He will also post photos, videos, descriptions of wanted persons and safety notices, such as in the case of car or home thefts.
In the future, Wilson plans to assign one officer per shift to handle social media. He hopes these initiatives will help relations between residents and officers.
“We hope to build the community back into the police department,” Wilson said.
To view the department’s Facebook page, visit www.facebook.com/WashingtonPaPolice, or type “City of Washington Police Department” in the Facebook search engine.