Snohomish County tackles property crime with Facebook

BOTHELL, Wash. — Snohomish County detectives said they are empowering the community to solve pesky property crime problems.

A break-in several weeks ago that resulted in $6,000 in damage and stolen goods at Helping Hands Thrift Shop was particularly frustrating to Shannon Field. She said money made at the shop goes to local community causes along with education and clean water projects in Peru.

“It makes a dent in what we can do with our non-profit,” Field said.

Snohomish County sheriff’s detectives connected the thrift shop break-in to a home burglary, but still had no idea who the suspect was.

Then within a day of posting information on the break-ins on Facebook, tips from the public led to an identification of a suspect.

“I call this the community helping the community, and it’s been really successful so far,” said sheriff’s office spokeswoman Shari Ireton.

Ireton periodically posts pictures of dangerous or wanted suspects on the sheriff’s office Facebook page. However, for the last month, she has been working with a detective to post about one property crime case with good surveillance images each week.

So far property crime posts have a perfect record. Five burglars across three Facebook posts all were quickly identified by the public.

Field said she hopes more law enforcement organizations begin posting property crime suspects on social media. “There’s a security and safety in your community knowing the smaller crimes are being taken care of,” she said.

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