brimfield township POLICE CHIEF Taking criminals to task online

Associated Press

KENT

If you’re up to no good in this pocket of Northeast Ohio, you’re risking not only jail time or a fine but a swifter repercussion with a much larger audience: You’re in for a social media scolding from police Chief David Oliver and some of his department’s more than 52,000 Facebook fans.

And Oliver does not mince words.

In postings interspersed with community messages and rants, the Brimfield Township chief takes to task criminals and other ne’er-do-wells — his preferred term is “mopes,” appropriated from police TV shows and an old colleague who used it — for the stupid, the lazy and the outright unlawful. Even an ill-considered parking choice can spur a Facebook flogging.

“If you use a handicapped space and you jump out of the vehicle, all healthy-like, as if someone is dangling free cheeseburgers on a stick, expect people to stare at you and get angry,” Oliver wrote last year. “You are milking the system and it aggravates those of us who play by the rules. Ignoring us does not make you invisible. We see you, loser.”

His humor, sarcasm and blunt opinion fueled a tenfold increase in the Facebook page’s likes in the past year, bringing the total to more than four times the 10,300 residents the department serves. It’s among the most-liked local law-enforcement pages in the country, according to the International Association of Chiefs of Police Center for Social Media.

Not bad for a guy who initially hoped maybe 500 locals would pay attention when he noticed other businesses’ pages and decided to start his own three years ago.

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Facebook posting, May 16, 2013: “I call criminals mopes. I do not comment on them being ugly, smelly or otherwise beauty impaired ... even though some are. I do not comment on their education, social status, color, sex, origin or who they marry. I care about crime and character. If you come to Brimfield and commit a crime, we are all going to talk about it. The easiest way to not be called a criminal is to not be one. It is not calculus.”

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The chief loves justice, Westerns and dogs. John Wayne and Abe Lincoln peer out from frames on the walls of Oliver’s office, where the 45-year-old chats with anyone who stops by.

His Facebook messages extend that open-door policySFlbonline for conversations about multiple topics. Some are serious, such as salutes to slain officers and updates during school-threat investigations. Others are light-hearted, like the attempt to find an escaped swine’s owner with an unusual APB — an “All-Pig Bulletin” — or his promise to “ticket” child bicyclists with coupons for free ice cream if they wear helmets.

And, of course, there’s crime. One posting berates a man accused of physically assaulting a woman and two kids. In another, Oliver suggests that hiding near an occupied police canine vehicle wasn’t a shoplifting suspect’s smartest move.

His officers and others say the online character of the chief matches real life.

“He is definitely a very large personality. It kind of goes with his size,” local fire Chief Robert Keller said.

Oliver’s 15-person department handles more than 13,000 calls for service annually and deals largely with arrests for driving violations, thefts and drug crimes by out-of-towners. Arrests in those crime categories dropped last year but are trending upward again, and Oliver says it would take more time to determine whether the Facebook messages are having an impact.

He doesn’t shy from addressing specific suspects or brands of criminals.

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July 31, 2012: “Dear Father or Mother Meth Cooks,

“You have lost your mind. What in hell are you thinking when you make the decision to cook meth with your child in the house? You have violated the very basic principle of being a parent, which is the safety of your child. I am fed up with watching it and also with being concerned with the long-term effects of what you have exposed YOUR child to.”

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The word is out even among mopes, a few of whom have told Oliver they read his updates.

His postings spur comments from as far away as Australia or Germany. Some praise the department. Others say Oliver uses work time inappropriately for Facebook or criticize him for discussing suspects in a public forum. (His response: It’s public record.)

Oliver welcomes the discussion and deletes comments only if they use profanity or refer to police in highly offensive language. Oliver says his updates provide accountability about police work.

He’s also a believer that people can change. He says that he might have become a mope if not for grandparents who let him watch only “The Waltons,” “Gunsmoke” and “The Andy Griffith Show” on TV.

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Jan. 28, 2013: “It is the opinion of this chief, located in a small corner of a great big world, that we need to, as a society, become a little more intolerant of people who commit crimes for a living. When we start yelling about it being unacceptable ... people will take notice and the practice will shift; either by putting people in jail, funding drug treatment or behavioral changes by the criminals.”

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Oliver, a father of four, turned his popularity into a sort of brand, pitching mugs and T-shirts with “no mopes” logos to raise money for school-security improvements.

It’s brought in more than $14,000, enough to install panic buttons connecting the five local schools to police. Cameras and intercoms are next.