OC Sheriff using Social Media to help Solve Crime

The world of social media is a place that is growing and expanding on a daily basis.  Many individuals use social media now instead of traditional media to find out about news and events going on close to home and around the world.  The Oconee County Sheriff’s Office is expanding its use of social media to reach more of the citizens of Oconee County. “The best way for the Sheriff’s Office to build the necessary partnerships for a safer community is through face to face contact with our citizens,” according to Oconee County Sheriff Mike Crenshaw.  “However, we know that social media and the Internet play a major role in today’s society. If we want to reach our maximum effectiveness, we must have an internet presence and take a proactive role in social media. In some instances, this will be our only opportunity to establish a relationship that we want to turn into a partnership. The more that we can keep the public informed translates into a safer county.” The Sheriff’s Office encourages citizens of Oconee County to visit their Facebook and Twitter pages where updates on news and events are posted. Many of those posts lead back to the Sheriff’s Office website, which is www.oconeelaw.com.  Recently, the Sheriff’s Office has increased its footprint into the social media world by establishing accounts on Google Plus and You Tube.  The Sheriff’s Office will soon begin posting content on those sites soon.  “Depending on which social media site one enjoys viewing dictates what content and interaction an individual expects on that site,” according to Jimmy Watt, Public Information Officer for the Sheriff’s Office.  “Facebook and Google Plus tend to lend itself to more conversation and dialogue, while Twitter is more suited for those who like to get hard facts and information from news organizations and governmental agencies.” To stress how important social media has becomes, a few weeks ago, Watt attended a class taught by the National Disaster Preparedness Training Center called “Social Media for Natural Disaster Response and Recovery.”  The course was held in Anderson County at the Anderson County Sheriff’s Office Joint Information Center Instruction Room.  The class focused on the use of social media to increase communication and enhance the overall capabilities of agencies to handle disaster preparedness, response to disasters and helping citizens in recovery from those disasters. “The world of social media continues to change as time goes along,” according to Watt.   “Individuals, businesses and governmental agencies are continuously evaluating and re-evaluating their footprint on social media.  We are learning everyday how to better use social media on the sites we are using and investigating other social media sites to help us to better understand how to reach the citizens of Oconee County.  If there is one thing I learned from the seminar in Anderson County is that no one has truly grasped everything that social media can truly do.  We have only begun to scratch the surface of its capabilities.  The Sheriff’s Office encourages citizens to visit all the social media sites, as well as the official internet site, since there may be content on the social media sites that are not on the office Sheriff’s office website or vice versa.