Be careful what you put on social media

We've done a few posts on keeping your children safe when they use the Internet, but we want adults to be safety conscious when using the Internet as well.  Because of the explosion in the popularity of social media, it can be used to gather information to commit a crime.  If you don't have privacy settings limiting who can see your updates, everyone can see them, even criminals. We think social media is a great way to communicate with our community. As a Police Department we use it to keep everyone updated on the crime trends we see, we use it to ask for help in identifying those people who have committed crimes and to warn about traffic hazards. We think most people would agree that these are good things, but there are some people who will use social media to help them commit crimes.

Be careful what you put on your social media sites. We would urge you not to put information like your birth date, social security number, address and other personal information on the Internet. We would also caution against letting everyone know that you'll be away on vacation and that your home will be empty. Sounds like common sense, right? You would be surprised what people will put on their Twitter, Facebook and other social media sites. While the video below was done last year it still has some good information for everyone to keep in mind.