“This wasn’t just a ‘shock and awe’ type of thing,” said Armendariz, Modesto PD’s public information officer and
brainchild of the virtual ride-along. “We also wanted to educate the community and make them feel more connected
with what we do – and more awareness can help prevent crime.”
Armendariz couldn’t say exactly how many Modesto residents participated in the virtual ride-along, but the Modesto
PD has 4,360 “followers” on Twitter, in addition to more than 1,620 “friends” on Facebook. Many people “retweeted”
the PD’s tweets, he said, sharing the department’s information with their networks of followers.
The Modesto PD has been active in social media for more than two years, and the virtual ride-along was a logical step
in forging a tighter bond to the community, Armendariz said.
It was so successful, in fact, that the agency plans to hold virtual ride-alongs every quarter.
Posting tweets and Facebook updates allows law enforcement agencies to deliver the information they want without it
being filtered by the media or other organizations, Armendariz said.
“It also allows us to reach out to members of the community who normally would