Blakely Police Turn to Facebook for Arrest Warrants
By: Eric Deabill
Updated: February 27, 2013
Blakely, Lackawanna County - A police department in Lackawanna County is changing with the times in order to crack down on criminals.
The Blakely Police Department has decided to turn to Facebook to find people with arrest warrants.
The department has had a Facebook page since July.
Officers routinely post arrest information and other alerts to the community but this week decided to take it one step further. They posted the names of dozens of people who have arrest warrants out for them.
"It could be anything from, we have curfew violations that have been committed in our borough all the way up to burglary so everything is on there," Chief Guy Salerno said. "We're not elaborating on what the warrants are, just here's the name and we have this many warrants for you."
Over the years, Chief Salerno says the number of warrants have piled-up and it takes both time and money to round everyone up.
The chief says Facebook is free and so far it has been successful.
"It turns out, in a 24-hour period, we've had more than 20 people actually contact the magistrate's office to arrange payments and over 30 warrants have been cleared already so it has worked out outstanding," Chief Salerno said. "It seems embarrassment seems to work."
On the streets, people who live in the area say they're happy to see the police change with the times and use social media to their advantage.
"If they're turning themselves in already, it kinda makes their job easier for them and it make everybody else that lives around here safer," Melissa Maus of Eynon said. "When you get in trouble you need to pay the consequences and that's it."
Police officers say the online list is no different than posting information in the newspaper and they will do their best to keep it up-to-date when people come clean.
"If it's a long period of time that the warrant has been issued and no action has been taken, I think that's a good time to put it on Facebook or whatever media," Woody Wilson of Blakely said.
As of Wednesday afternoon, there were more than 60 names on the arrest warrant list in Blakely.
