Telfair County Sheriff’s Department Using Social Media to Create ‘Virtual’ Neighborhood Watch

McRAE, Georgia (41NBC/WMGT) – Telfair County sheriff’s deputies are working with the communtiy to fight crime and they’re using social media to do it.

Business owners in Telfair County, like Faye Drake, are always keeping an eye out for one another.

She owns Inside ‘N Out, an antique store, right in the heart of McRae.

Drake says the sheriff’s office’s effort to keep the community informed through social media is helping residents.

“I think it’ll keep the city safer and keep the shop keepers safer too, that’s the concern a lot of people have when they’re in business alone like I am,” Drake said.

Deputies are using Facebook to keep their streets safer.

Sheriff Chris Steverson is constantly posting on the site, and he thinks it helps people in the area stay alert when something comes up.

“A lot of times, when we are looking for a particular vehicle or a particular suspect, we can communicate with a lot of people quickly on Facebook and its been very positive, we’ve had a lot of positive results,” Steverson said.

“Not only has it helped out in solving some crimes and locating some owners of stolen property, sometimes you recover stolen property and you don’t know who it belongs to, and that gives us an outlet to put that description of the property on there,” he said.

Steverson says the goal is be more transparent with the community to create a virtual neighborhood watch.

“I’ve had several people reach out to me and say ‘Hey can you put a picture of this on your Facebook, and hopefully someone will recognize it and see it if it’s been sold or if they have encountered it at some place,” Steverson said.

The idea is if you see something, post it….

If deputies see something, they’ll do the same.

Drake thinks the idea will bring the community closer together.

“I think we need that and more help too. Anything that will help us grow a little bit,” Drake said.

Steverson says the eventual goal on Facebook is to have all deputies posting frequently throughout the day.

He thinks it’ll take some time to train them on what to post.