Social Media for Alerts

[Cindy Neff]

I have a few questions regarding social media.
1. Do you use social media for alerts, other than AMBER (Missing Child Alert, Silver Alert, etc.)? What platforms?
2. Do you allow comments?
3. Do you provide a link on social media to the alert?
4. Do you have a state requirement to seal records once a missing person has been located?
5. How do you deal with social media posts once a person has been located? Do you delete posts in consideration of the person’s privacy? Does your agency have any restrictions on deleting posts?

Thanks for any info you can provide. I need it as soon as possible.

[Jason Matheson]

In Oklahoma we post all alerts on Facebook and Twitter.

We allow comments. We discussed turning them off but we have been regularly getting tips in the comment sections.

We provide a link in the WEA to our Twitter page for Amber, Blue and EMA messages.

The Oklahoma Highway Patrol houses the alert program, but we are not a primary investigative agency for most missing person. (We have some jurisdiction on turnpikes). We are not required to seal any investigations.

We delete the post a couple days after the subject is located. We pay a company to backup all of our social media to meet open records requirements.

[Kathleen Leahy]

In Arizona, we use social media for Silver alerts most often. Those alerts are posted to Twitter by default when the alert is issued. For Blue alerts and AMBER alerts, which are (fortunately) rare, we post to Twitter and also post to Instagram and Facebook. We do allow comments on all of our posts across all platforms and we do not delete posts.

We link to the alert page on our website. This allows us to update the information (corrections, status changes, etc.) since Twitter does not allow editing.

We are not a primary investigating agency for missing persons, only the central repository for the records entered into NCIC/ACIC.

[India Sturgis]

1. Delaware State Police uses Facebook and Twitter for all alerts.

2. We allow comments to promote what we hope to be positive public engagement.

3. We share news updates through a press release which we also link on our social media channels.

4 & 5. Pursuant to Delaware HB 476, it is mandatory for Delaware law enforcement agencies to remove Gold Alert notifications (including cancellations) within 72 hours of receiving the notification that the individual is no longer missing. To comply with this new legislation, we mark the Gold Alert as “private” on WordPress and delete the alert on social media. We are currently working towards achieving full compliance with this regulation, but the process of manually removing each one is taking some time.

[Cindy Neff]

Thank you everyone for your responses. This is very helpful.

[Melissa Marchant]

I have a few questions regarding social media.
1. Do you use social media for alerts, other than AMBER (Missing Child Alert, Silver Alert, etc.)? What platforms? Yes, FB & Twitter
2. Do you allow comments? yes per policy
3. Do you provide a link on social media to the alert? yes
4. Do you have a state requirement to seal records once a missing person has been located? no
5. How do you deal with social media posts once a person has been located? Do you delete posts in consideration of the person’s privacy? I have started deleting images of kids but can’t in Twitter so that is frustrating. Does your agency have any restrictions on deleting posts? give the update located etc. we block the scam video comments

Sorry it’s late!

[Author]

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