Sheriff Al Lamberti, 54, is like The Consumerist with a badge and a gun.
His beat is Broward County. He's been walking it for 34 years. But he's always looking for new ways to help out the citizens he keeps watch over. Like using Facebook to solve crimes.
When a rash of air conditioning thefts hit the county, where they can go for $500 a pop resale, Sheriff Al posted about it on his Facebook wall. His over 10,000 Facebook fans saw a description of the suspects and the make of their car. Within two days, a homeowner called up 911 and said, "I think they're at the house next door." Police swooped in and made four arrests.
Normally, "That would have taken several months," Lamberti told me. First there would have had to have been the usual internal conflict and consensus-building about resource allocation. Then the information would have dribbled out through Crime Watch and Neighborhood Watch. A special task force might have to be created. Eventually a lead would generate. A few months later, an arrest. Maybe. Or maybe nothing.
But through the power and immediacy of using Facebook to directly interact with his constituency, Sheriff Al's team was able to close the case in just a couple of days.
"We could have never touched that many people through Crime Watch," he said. Al maxed out his 5,000 friend limit on his personal page and had to set up a fan page to deal with the overflow. It's got over 5,580 likes. Al often posts an "early morning wakeup call" where he wishes people a good day and comments about the weather. His fans can also learn that he is draining the pool, attending the 11th Annual Bubbles & Bones Gala, and working on the campaign for his upcoming re-election. Other times, he requests help and information from the citizens about crimes in their community.
"A lot of crimes now are non-traditional, like prescription drug abuse and identity theft," said Sheriff Al. "All these new waves of crime we just don't have the resources to deal with them while still going after bank robberies and auto theft." For instance, coupon theft isn't usually a high priority. But after hearing casually that there might be a problem with folks systematically stealing coupons from newspaper bins, Al posted about it on his Facebook wall. He got 50 public replies and over 100 private messages. A few were credible leads with eyewitness accounts, giving police the info to go on to set up a sting operation and catch several coupon thieves in the act.
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