As I noted several days ago, the Knox County Sheriff’s Office now has its own Facebook fan page, launched quite recently.
Have any of you reading this blog post ever attempted to post a comment or question on KCSO’s official Facebook page? What did you attempt to say via your comment to KKCSO, and was your comment published? Has it remained published? If not, how quickly did it get deleted by KCSO?
I’ve attempted to leave several polite comments myself in recent days, but each one of my comments was deleted within minutes of me posting it.
Like this one, for example, which remained visible on the official KCSO Facebook page for 14 minutes after I posted it just before 7pm on Sunday, February 19, 2012
(Someone working on a Sunday night? Does KCSO pay that person overtime for that?)
My most recent comment read:
“Sheriff Jones, as a pet lover and owner myself, I appreciate your agency’s very obvious commitment to fostering responsible pet ownership in our community and your jurisdiction. However, as the Knox County taxpaying mother of a teenager who died as the result of drug-induced homicide, I would like to respectfully request that in addition to your voluminous number of informative and enlightening Facebook status updates regarding pet care, you would also utilize this powerful social media tool to educate our community about issues of drug crime, overdose prevention and other high priority criminal justice and public safety issues. Thank you for your consideration of my request. – Katie Allison Granju, Knox County, TN”
Again, this comment was deleted after less than 15 minutes.
I would really like to see Knox County journalists ask Knox County Sheriff Jimmy “JJ” Jones how many hours each week a taxpayer-salaried employee of the KCSO is currently spending monitoring KCSO’s public Facebook page so that the agency can immediately delete most comments and questions left there by members of the public. Currently, not ONE SINGLE comment exists on the page in which the commenter is saying anything other than some variation on “way to go KCSO.”
Someone is putting some serious time into the task of monitoring and moderating this official KCSO Facebook account, since no matter what time of day or night citizens leave comments that don’t explicitly praise or support KCSO, the comments are manually deleted on KCSO’s end, usually within five minutes or less. That’s true if it’s 4am , 3pm or midnight.
There is no way to automate this task of monitoring and deleting comments on a “brand” Facebook page like the one KCSO set up and is using as an official communication channel; one or more human KCSO employees whom we’re paying has inarguably been assigned the task of full time censorship of this publicly operated social media account.
This behavior by KCSO is out of step with professional best practices for government agencies using social media, does not serve the public interest, and is an obvious waste of tax dollars.
In addition to be questioned regarding who is being paid to handle this task, and how much, KCSO leadership needs to be asked what specific, written community guidelines are in place to determine which comments by citizens are deleted and which are allowed to remain on KCSO’s public Facebook page. There must be written guidelines in place, because surely this is not a situation where the employee tasked with managing KCSO’s Facebook account is simply deleting anything that doesn’t praise KCSO in some way, per his or her personal opinions.
So how about it local journalists? Who is willing to look into this and try to get some clear answers. Remember that anything KCSO is doing with regard to Facebook account management is public record, so that’s one helpful avenue available for trying to determine how and why even one precious dollar allocated to local law enforcement is being directed toward constant monitoring of the KCSO Facebook page, and deletion of most citizen comments and questions.
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All comments at Justice for Henry are moderated. Please be patient if it takes time for yours to appear.
I don’t understand why the polite and respectful comments of someone that pays their salaries is continuously and immediately deleted. I tried to read your comment within two minutes of you letting us know it was up and it was gone baby, gone. You, I and everyone else is paying the salary of that Facebook page gatekeeper.
Why have one unless the public can comment? And if they have someone that tuned into the page why is there not more on it than pet concerns and officer recognition?
I live in Australia – do you want me to post something in the middle of the night knoxville time and see how long before it gets deleted?
I noticed the absence of comments as well, but not as baffling as the KCSO bothering to post some inoffensive boilerplate about pet care for crying out loud! I know there have been some awful animal hoarding discoveries, but these folks have mental illness and are not reading the pet care information…
The chief LEO should not be elected! Knox county has too many little fiefdoms ruled by elected officials who are not accountable to any ONE person, like the Mayor, who could take timely action. Recall is nearly impossible and takes years… Metro government looks good to me.
Look how responsive the KPD was arrest the persons involved in Henry’s death when they had cause in their jurisdiction. The Chief of Police is appointed and accountable to the City Mayor and that makes all the difference.
I have left three comments over the past few days. All about the correlation of animal abuse and domestic violence. All three have been removed.
I will try again,
Left on KCSO FB page
11:53P.M. Sunday, February 19, 2012
Misha XXXXX Over the past few days I have left several links about the correlation a animal abuse and domestic violence. In many cities if a 911 call comes in about animal abuse, the officers responding also look for signs of domestic abuse/neglect in the family that owns the pet. Does Knox County have in anything place like this? http://www.americanhumane.org/interaction/support-the-bond/fact-sheets/animal-abuse-domestic-violence.html
Facts About Animal Abuse & Domestic Violence
http://www.americanhumane.org
4 minutes ago · Like ·
Misha Stafford Also, I am wondering. Since all of my comments have been removed, are citizens not encouraged to write? It seems this should be a two-way conversation since there are comment boxes under each post. Obviously someone is monitoring the KCSO FB page since comments disappear so quickly.
2 seconds ago · Like
Katie, my comment was removed at 12:15 a.m.
Mine is still up … 50 minutes and counting.
Well, I hope that’s a harbinger of a new way of managing their FB page. Good for them.
Gone now … they should be ashamed.
Both barrels coming out now …
It’s a darn good thing I don’t live in Knox County … ha ha ha
Pew pew … http://on.fb.me/xtOT6N
This is incredible, Lissa! I posted again very early this morning. My comment was gone in 22 minutes. I just stayed on the KCSO page and waited. Then..Poof!
Gone!
This just adds to what we all know about the KCSO because of Katie. They are a
closed law enforcement agency that feels they owe no one anything. They don’t give a damn that the citizens of Knox county pay their salary. The fact that they are extending this silence to the official KCSO FB page is just a testimony to what
Katie began writing about months ago.
It looks like all comments are being deleted (i.e. I cannot find a single post that has a comment on it, though I admit I haven’t scrolled back through all of them). So I guess the only way to express an opinion about an update is to “like” it and, presumably, all comments are deleted as quickly as possible. None of which contradicts Katie’s basic question, is this a good use of taxpayer dollars?
Give ‘em hell, Katie. We can all post constructive comments that will hopefully open their eyes to the issues they need to address in the department. I’ve recently learned of Henry’s story – shortly after learning I was pregnant. I’ve probably spent 12 hours reading over timelines, transcripts, etc. and staring at pictures of your beautiful boy, and I don’t think I’ve ever been quite so horrified at the negligence of a governmental entity. You continue to be an inspiration to me as a mother and now an activist.
If they don’t want comments they could just change the settings not to allow comments. Plenty of companies, public agencies, and public figures don’t allow comments. It’s not THAT hard and then no one would have to constantly monitor the page.
I left a comment and will see how long it takes to be deleted… I am with Lissa, it is a good thing I don’t live there
If it’s like most organizations, the facebook page is just handed to someone and you’re charged with keeping it updated without any extra pay or a raise, which can make for some rather tedious weekends. Will be interesting to watch and am I the only one surprised to learn that he is just now getting a facebook page?
Does anyone know?
A little off topic, but did KCSO investigators or TBI agents review Baumgartner’s credit card statements to see if he bankrolled airfare to and from FL. The redacted TBI file mentioned airline flights were sometimes the mode of transportation during drug runs. I’ll bet somebody used a credit card to purchase the flights. I don’t picture the druggies I’m reading about having a credit card or the ability to coordinate airline travel.
I’m just sayin….