Law enforcement deescalated a potentially violent situation over the weekend using social media.
- OCSO used social media to deescalate Facebook live incident
- No one charged, but DCF tipped off since a child was involved
- Social media has become law enforcement tool, says sheriff
On Sunday, the Orange County Sheriff’s Office was tipped to a Facebook live video showing a man at the Landon Trace Townhomes pointing a gun at the woman conducting the Facebook video.
“After we received a number of phone calls of people watching the Facebook live incident we were able to monitor it ourselves and take action as a result," said Orange County Sheriff Jerry Demmings.
Although no arrests were made, because the woman in the video later said she did not feel threatened during the altercation, Sheriff Demmings says monitoring social media and responding to potential threats to safety like this are becoming a big part of their job.
“We have a unit in our agency that monitors social media to be able to use it to our advantage in doing criminal investigation,” Demmings explained.
He said social media has become a tool law enforcement can use to catch criminals or even stop crimes before they start.
While no one’s been charged in this most recent Facebook live case, Sheriff Demmings said there was a child involved, and that enabled them to tip off the Department of Children and Families to investigate the child’s wellbeing.
“We use every tool that we can to get to the heart of the matter and facts of any investigation, and social media is one of those tools,” Demmings explained.
Not only does the Sheriff’s Office have their own team monitoring social media, but they also work with the Central Florida Intelligence Exchange, which monitors social media throughout our region and partners with federal state and local law enforcement authorities.