Boonville Police terminates commenting ability on Facebook page

BOONVILLE- The village police department has taken action to eliminate one’s ability to comment on their Facebook posts.

According to a news release, the department has been in touch with other police agencies and they all see eye to eye on the fact that there tends to be harassment, threats and other kinds of disturbing content for when it comes to social media users commenting on Facebook posts.

In terms of police departments and other kinds of social media pages, case law determines them to be a “public forum.” In a nutshell, if people have access to comment on a social media page, their remarks are protected under the First Amendment and are not supposed to be tampered with, according to the news release via Boonville Police.

However, if a page removes the option for folks to share comments, it takes away the public forum aspect of it.

For folks who wish to comment on a specific post from Boonville Police Department from now on, they can do so by sending them a message through messenger.

Chief Olney reminds that this option is never to be used for emergency communication.

Other police agencies have taken this route, including the Oneida County Sheriff’s Office.

Image via the Village of Boonville Police Department.