Brookhaven police officers take transparency and community policing seriously, says Officer Carlos Nino, a spokesman for the department.
Though Brookhaven has a Facebook Page for its residents, on Oct. 7, a Brookhaven Police Department Facebook Page was created in Spanish to reach Spanish speaking residents.
Nino said about 20 officers have access to post on the English Facebook page, but only he contributes to the Spanish page.
Nino on Oct. 20 created a photo album called “Sabia Que,” which translates to “Did you know?”
The first post tells residents that on each of the police department’s four shifts at least one officer speaks Spanish. “So there is no excuse for not calling 911 to report any incident or document a report,” the post says.
As of Oct. 21, two weeks after its launch, the Page has 528 “likes.”
“For now, I am the only one contributing to our Spanish Facebook page, but eventually we will add some of our Spanish speaking officers, supervisors and detectives to this Facebook page,” Nino said. “We want to be as transparent as possible especially during unique/difficult situations that we may encounter in our community.”