Palmer Police Now On Facebook

Two months ago, the launched its own Facebook page.

But, with little fanfare, so did Palmer Township.

Go on the Palmer Township Police Department's Facebook page and you'll see all kinds of information, everything from who is the Fugitive of the Week to Palmer crimes to announcements and shoutouts about what neighboring police departments are doing.

"Looks good, great start," Supervisor Bob Lammi posted right after Palmer's launch.

The Palmer page is the responsibility of Sgt. Wayne Smith.

So far, Smith is proud of the page's success.

It's received 211 Likes and is adding about two or three new people a day, Smith said. He said the Social Media platform is great for bolstering communications with the community.

For new Chief , Facebook was a foreign concept to him.

"I'm not too skilled techwise, but a lot of people are," Palmer said. "At first, I didn't think we could do it. No one had any time and I didn't know who knew how to do it."

Palmer believes, though, that Social Media can be a great crimefighting tool.

Throughout the county, many police departments are using Facebook to help spread the message by posting press releases, mugshots of criminals, alerting the public about various crimes and keeping citizens informed about what the department offers.

"I think it's great, I really do," Palmer said. "It helps us catch people. We get information because people know who does the crimes, stupid stuff like criminal mischief."

Smith recalled a fatal accident a few years back in which police were able to gather information through numerous Facebook posts.

"As an information tool, I want to keep it professional and disimmenate information," Smith said. "We want to share stuff. I'm very active on it."