CAPE CORAL, Fla. — Social media is a big tool not only for us, but police. However, Cape Coral Police say the way people are using social media is limiting their investigations.
More people are posting crimes and tips online, instead of calling 911.
"Social media is not monitored 24/7, it's not meant to be a place to report crimes," said Cape Coral Police Officer Mercedes Simonds.
WATCH BELOW TO SEE THE TREND POLICE ARE SEEING:
"People will post issues, criminal activities, traffic complaints and things on social media," Simonds said. "People will tag us underneath, ask us why we’re not doing anything."
She says if people don't call, then they may not know something is happening.
"We've seen a lot of videos go up that should have been sent directly to the police department, but instead they're posting it on social media," Simonds explained.
An example of that is a post back in December, which may have been connected to a deadly pedestrian crash on Veterans Parkway between Del Prado Boulevard and Country Club Boulevard.
"And then we saw in the Cape Coral Residents Group luckily, like I said, people tagged us, but they had put on their instead — that there was a truck that pulled up with blood," Simonds said. "Instead of posting that on social media, if you have concerns, just call us."
Police don't know why the person didn't report it directly to them, but clinical social worker Carolina Ferrer says it could be for a number of reasons.
"It could be attention-seeking, it could be they don't have time. I mean, there are so many factors to it," she said. "I think some people don’t want to be bothered with additional things."
She said people can also be weary of police, have past trauma or believe someone else will report it.
Posting it online could be connected to a personality type.
"I think it’s serotonin, dopamine release when people are watching and looking at your status of saying something," Ferrer said.
However, she believes it comes back to educating the community on appropriate ways to report crimes.
And this isn't to say people don't report crimes to police or help solve them. This does happen a lot.
Police posted a video of suspected thieves, hoping for tips.
Then there was another case involving a woman accused of stealing from Target. Simonds says a person saw the post from police and messaged their page. The person said they went to school with the suspect and provided her TikTok, which connected the woman to the crimes.
"When you message our social media, it lets you know that this is not a place to report 911 calls and it tells you to call the non-emergency number," Simonds said. "It doesn't waste our time for you to call. We would rather know about it, check it out and go from there."
"It's a tool and if used appropriately, it can really help us save our community, our neighbors, ourselves," Ferrer said.
If you have an emergency, call 911, or non-emergency at 239-574-3223.
