By Emily Danzig
Police departments in the Rockbridge area are catching up to the new standard in social media.
Lexington Police Chief Al Thomas acknowledged that his police department needs to consider involvement online.
“The city as a whole is behind,” said Thomas, a former public information officer for the police department in Lynchburg.
He said that the area is playing catch-up with larger agencies that have already established a social media presence.
The Lexington Police Department has not yet taken to Facebook or Twitter, as many other cities have. But a new city government website launched recently represents the first step.
Thomas reported the department’s new online “conversation” is already yielding changes. In mid-November, the official website for the city was revamped after being in the works for nine months, with special attention to the police section. The site features contact information for Thomas and a few others as well as a crime-line phone number and a directory listing.
Gigi Vita, Lexington’s information technology administrator, said the city will use the services of CivicPlus, a company that designs websites predominantly for local governments.
The CivicPlus website offers modules that the city can use on its website, including a photo gallery, calendar, alerts center and even opinion polls and surveys for citizens.
Vita says the main delay in implementing such an interactive site comes from a lack of resources. She said that it is difficult to find staff to manage it since Lexington does not have a public information office.
“The tools are only as strong as those who go to [them],” Vita said about potentially improving community relations with law enforcement using Web resources.
Departments with official pages on popular media sites can foster positive communications and presence within the community. Facebook or Twitter pages offer real-time direct updates about community events, crime and prevention and even traffic. They are quicker and more accessible than just a website that citizens are less likely to check regularly.
Although these features are more necessary in a big city, a small municipality such as Lexington can also reap benefits. A large portion of the city’s population is made up of college students from Washington and Lee University and Virginia Military Institute, a key audience for social media.
The Rockbridge County Sheriff’s Office has a Facebook page. The page is updated almost daily and has over 1,000 “likes.”
The department posts public service announcements, updates about ongoing investigations, news related to the community and even digital “Wanted” posters.
Many posts have comments from local residents thanking the office for its service. Interactions like these exemplify the impact that a social media page can have and the role it can serve in a community.
Lieutenant Steve Funkhouser described its function as a “source for citizens to communicate [with the sheriff’s office], and for the reverse, to communicate with citizens.”
He said that the office has received positive feedback about it. An investigator in the office runs the page.