In August 2010, the Redlands PD had about 600 fans on its
Facebook page. As of Jan. 17, the agency had about 2,700
fans with viral reach of 1.1 million views per month, Dale
said.
city, typically logging no more than five homicides a year.
Several nearby lower-income communities, however, make
Redlands a significant target of property crimes, Catren
says.
“We want to maintain contact with the community and
improve on it all the time,” Catren says of the vital role of
social media in law enforcement. “As a police department,
we are always looking at ways to connect with any part of
the community. Not everyone can come up to our front
counter and talk to us.”
This makes communicating with other law enforcement
agencies through new tools like CopBook even more
important, Catren says.
Social media tools have proven to be valuable when it comes
to mining crime tips, Catren says. Dozens of tips flooded
into the Redlands PD via Facebook and Twitter following a
double homicide in January 2010.
Redlands, with a population of 70,000, is a relatively safe
His boss agrees.
“Social networking has provided the ability for us to share
information quickly with large groups of people,” Garcia
says. “It also gives us a tool to gain intelligence more quickly
than ever before. Capitalizing on the medium will help us
in our ability to provide effective service to our community.”
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Spring 2012
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