By Police1 Staff
JOPLIN, Mo. — A Missouri police department has ended a popular series on its Facebook page after disagreements with a city manager.
KOAM-TV reports that the Joplin PD shut down its “incident spotlight” series, which highlights specific arrests and incident calls, after City Manager Sam Anselm asked the department to stop posting the reports. According to emails obtained by KOAM-TV, Anselm said that he has “a hard time seeing how they benefit the community.”
“We can find other ways to highlight the positive activities of the department without creating and inviting divisiveness online,” Anselm wrote in an email.
Anselm also asked if the Facebook posts are click-bait to get more Facebook likes. Chief Matt Stewart said other agencies have similar posts on social media and that they’re used to help the community, not for click-bait.
Police Captain Trevor Duncan wrote that the posts are necessary because they let people know what officers are doing, what’s going on in Joplin and showcase the officers’ efforts to combat crime.
“I’ve encouraged the police department to come up with other ideas to share information that will serve the public in a way that doesn’t add to the negativity and divisiveness that currently exists in the online world,” Anselm said in a statement.
The Joplin PD said they have not received official complaints about the “incident spotlight” posts. The department said they were recently given new guidelines that don’t support the incident spotlight as a continuing feature.
Read the email exchange obtained by KOAM-TV below.
Incident Spotlight by Ed Praetorian on Scribd