Merced County sheriff’s detectives launch new Facebook page
Merced County sheriff’s detectives have a new Facebook page to provide an additional means of direct communication with investigators working some of the area’s most serious criminal cases.
The page, “Merced Sheriff Investigations,” launched Aug. 10 and is monitored by sheriff’s detectives. Detective Sgt. Chuck Hale said he plans to post a variety of information.
“We’ll be posting about cases that are ongoing investigations that are relevant to the public,” Hale said. “It will also give us the opportunity to ask the public to share information directly with us.”
Since its debut earlier this month, investigators have posted information seeking the public’s help to locate a domestic violence suspect, to ask that witnesses to a shooting in Santa Nella come forward and to publish a security-camera image from an armed robbery at a Delhi gas station.
Detectives also have posted a news release on a missing-person case out of Los Banos.
“We’ll also share information about any crime trends we see in the county,” Hale said. “Particularly any spikes in crime in a particular geographic area of the county. We definitely want to be able to share information with the public so people know what to be on the lookout for.”
It’s not a page for anyone simply curious about sirens they may be hearing or curious about calls heard over police scanners.
“It’s not going to have every call the Sheriff’s Office receives or have any real-time information about calls for service,” Hale said. “And we definitely won’t be posting every detail of every case.”
The page still is developing and detectives are hoping more people will visit it.
“We don’t have any major success stories just yet, but it’s still brand new,” Hale said, “and I’m confident that it will become a good tool for us and for the residents of Merced County.”
The page can be found at www.facebook.com/MercedSheriffInvestigations.
Rob Parsons: 209-385-2482
This story was originally published August 24, 2016 at 4:40 PM with the headline "Merced County sheriff’s detectives launch new Facebook page."