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The advancement of social media has caused plenty of changes in our lives — good and bad.

We write plenty about both in this space.

But one very positive outcome has been the opportunity for police departments and sheriff’s office to communicate directly to the public, especially when they are looking for the suspect of an alleged crime.

This past weekend the LaGrange Police Department posted about an individual it was looking for from a peeping Tom-type incident at a local grocery store, and, according to LPD, the individual accused called the LPD to discuss what happened.

In many other incidents, the LPD or Troup County Sheriff’s Office posts that they are looking for an individual and a community member calls in with a tip. Or a missing child is posted and they are instantly able to alert a large following in a very quick timeframe.

The strength of a police department is always impacted by how forthcoming the community it serves is with information. 

When people see a crime committed, if they are willing to share what they saw or heard, it’s much easier to solve the case. If people are unwilling to work with law enforcement, it’s much more likely that the perpetrator will go unpunished.

With that in mind, we applaud the way our local law enforcement is using social media, as it’s clearly a growing outlet that is allowing crimes to be solved quickly.