Ridgway Police Department

About Ridgway Police Department
PUBLIC POSTING / COMMENTING POLICY

1. As a public entity, the Ridgway Police Department must abide by certain standards to serve all its constituents in a civil and unbiased manner.

2. When comments are authorized by the department to be posted upon a departmental social media site, posts or comments containing any of the following inappropriate forms of content

shall not be permitted and are subject to removal by the Chief of Police and/or officers designated to administer the site:

a. Posts/comments not related to the original topic, including random or unintelligible comments. Posts that do not promote civil discussion. Profane, obscene, or pornographic content and/or language. Content that could compromise an ongoing investigation. Any personal identifying information of any person. Defamatory or personal attacks. Threats to any person or organization. Posts/comments in support of, or in opposition to, any political campaigns or ballot measures. Solicitation of commerce, including, but not limited to, advertising of any business or product for sale. Conduct in violation of any federal, state or local law. Encouragement of illegal activity. Information that may tend to compromise the safety or security of the public or public systems. Content that violates a legal ownership interest, such as a copyright or trademark of any party

3. A comment posted by a member of the public on any departmental social media web site is the opinion of the commentator or poster only, and publication of a comment does not imply endorsement, or agreement by, the Ridgway Police Department, nor do such comments necessarily reflect the opinions or policies of the department.

4. The Ridgway Police Department reserves the right to deny access to departmental social media web sites for any individual who violates the social media policy, at any time and without prior notice.

5. Complaints against employees should not be reported on departmental social media sites. If a complaint is received via social media, the complaint will be handled according to existing departmental complaint procedures. However, if the complaint names an employee, or is particularly controversial or of a sensitive nature, the post will be removed and will be forwarded to the Chief of Police to be administered per Internal Affairs procedures.