RED OAK PD: Social Media – does it help or hurt?

Social media can be a phenomenal tool when it comes to gaining information about criminal activity within a jurisdiction and assisting your law enforcement agency with tips to help solve crimes.  

However, according to Lieutenant Marc Schroeder, Red Oak Police Department social media can also contribute to misinformation when citizens don’t vet the sources of information.  

“The Red Oak Police Department provides an option to citizens that are curious about any criminal activity within our city or neighborhood,” he explained.  

CrimeReports.com allows citizens to research offense data at http://www.crimereports.com/ or on the app on their phone.  

The Red Oak Police Department believes in transparency and gives its citizens additional features, functionality, and insight into crime and public safety trends within the community.

To access the additional features of a CrimeReports Plus agency, click on the “Explore” button under a featured agency in the list view, or double-click one of the gold “Explore” icons on the map.  

From here residents can do the following: View crime trends from the “Trends” tab in the list view, including an overtime view and breakdowns by time of day and incident type.

View the raw data that powers CrimeReports by clicking the “Get This Data on Socrata” button in the footer.

See the social media links, twitter feed, and website for our agency.

Citizens can also download the app for Apple devices at  https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/crimereports-by-motorola-powered-by-socrata/id1100061196 or for Android devices at https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.socrata.crimereports&hl=en_US.