ARAPAHOE COUNTY, Colo. — Gone are the days of faces on milk cartons and most wanted flyers posted on street corners.
Now, many local law enforcement agencies like the Arapahoe County Sheriff’s Office are turning to social media to find criminals and make sure the community knows who and what to look out for.
Arapahoe County Sheriff’s Office public information officer, Julie Brooks, said the department uses five different platforms to spread information and photos to target certain neighborhoods.
“By the time you print a 15 most wanted page or a 10 most wanted page and get it posted everywhere, you could have some of those people back in custody and now it’s outdated,” said Brooks.
Posts on the Next Door sight are seen by thousands of eyes very quickly. They also post on Twitter, Facebook and the Sheriff’s Office website.
“We can reach I think 80,000 people at once or we can target 300 homes in one area so just the scalability of Next Door is great for us,” said Brooks. “We have had times that within an hour after posting something on social media we had calls from Crime Stoppers wanting to know what investigator is working it because they have tips already.”
Law enforcement agencies encourage community members who are active on social media to follow their local agencies to make sure they get important updates.