PRESS RELEASE:
Gilmer County Sheriff Stacy Nicholson releases the following information:
The Gilmer County Sheriff’s Office is making great advances with its official Facebook page. Since July, there have been posts informing the public of suspicious activities; air conditioner & copper thefts; a weekly update with pictures of their first Citizens’ Law Enforcement Academy; announcement and pictures of a benefit ride for a fellow officer suffering from ALS; detailed monthly stats reports of Sheriff’s office activities; drug arrests; Sheriff’s Office state recertification; along with agency promotions, annual employee awards, police academy graduations, local weather and scam alerts. The Sheriff’s Office knows the social networking site has become a way for law enforcement to communicate with the people it serves and to even get information back from them.

Gilmer County Sheriff Stacy Nicholson says, “We plan to continue doing what we’ve been doing, but we want to do much more.” In the immediate future, it is the Sheriff’s Office intent to give up to the minute traffic advice on road conditions in the winter time, as well as, road closures due to motor vehicle accidents. “Our Facebook page will be posting lookouts, missing person alerts, fraud and scam alerts, weather warnings, school closure notices, arrests, and community information in general, just in a timelier manner. For instance, posts about emergencies can be made in a matter of seconds,” to which Nicholson states, “we’re prepared to post important information at any point of the day, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.”

Nicholson believes that social networking is no longer just a novelty, but a valid tool for law enforcement. “One of the benefits is that Facebook expands the reach of our agency. It becomes a multiplier. As more people repost something, the more people will become aware of it. In the instance of a missing person, for example, all of a sudden you could have hundreds more people on the lookout. It really is limitless because of being able to reach a greater number of people.” Sheriff Nicholson thinks that’s the benefit of using Facebook because “it provides the Sheriff’s Office with more eyes on the street, similar to a neighborhood watch, however, Facebook is much quicker.”

Sheriff Nicholson looks forward to using social networking as a way to better serve and connect with the citizens of Gilmer County. “We are a Sheriff’s Office, not an occupying force, and as such, we want our citizens to be informed and believe they have a right to know what we are doing. Our page has almost 400 fans, but we would like to have many more.”

The Sheriff’s Office also has a Twitter account to get messages out to the public. The Twitter account is directly linked to the Facebook page so that posts are relayed through both media.

Sheriff Nicholson concludes that “social media is a simple & affordable way of getting information out to our citizens instantaneously and at no additional cost to them. I feel it’s a win-win situation.”
To access and like the Facebook page for the Gilmer County Sheriff’s Office, go to www.facebook.com/gilmersheriff. Follow on Twitter @gilmersheriff or www.twitter.com/gilmersheriff.