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MILFORD, Mass. – If you see police cars flying down Main Street with their sirens on and are curious about what’s going on, there’s a chance you can find out on Facebook.
With the Police Department’s Facebook page close to hitting a milestone after one year, Deputy Chief James Heron said the new avenue of communication has been well received around town.
“We have almost 1,000 ‘likes,’ so it’s been a pretty good response from residents,” Heron said. “People are definitely following us. It’s a good spot for people to go to catch up on police news and get it on one shot.
“The department updates it every day with local media articles, and if there’s a car accident, we’ll let people know about that,” he added. “And also, we’ll put up a post if there’s a social function going on in town to let people know about that.”
The Milford Police Department created the social media page on Feb. 13, 2012, and as of Monday, the page needed only one more “like” to reach 1,000 “likes.” Some of the recent posts were about a water main break that flooded Route 16 in town, pictures and information on the new technology for the department’s police cruisers and pictures of a car slamming into a telephone pole.
“People have responded positively to getting that information right away,” Heron said. “We’ve been asked questions on the page, and we give them helpful information. You see some people thanking us, so it’s another great tool to communicate with the public.
“People are looking at it, so we’ll keep this going as long as this is a good social media source before something better comes up,” he added.
Managing a Facebook page has been much easier than a police department webpage, according to Heron.
“I can’t emphasize enough the simplicity and user-friendliness of it,” he said. “It’s an expense to get on the web to build a website, which is difficult to manage with a lot of protocols and it’s very complicated. But Facebook is user-friendly, and the page is nice and clean.
“It’s simple to use, much more manageable and it’s great way to promote the department,” Heron added.
To check out the Facebook page, click here.
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