UTICA, NY – The Utica Police Department has announced it has shut off comments on the department’s official Facebook page after the page has been plagued by scammers, catfishing and extortionists.
“We have seen an immense increase in the amount of catfishers and scammers trying to extort those who comment on our pages,” the department said. “We cannot be a part of allowing that to happen and being the platform for which our public is taken advantage of. As we have stated previously, we cannot hide, block, censor, or limit individual posters First Amendment Rights within our media stories if any commentary is allowed.”
The Utica Police Department noted the dialogue on the page in the comments section has devolved over the years.
“As our audience has continued to grow on social media over the years, the online climate has become one in which information sharing has grown into debate and comments which serve little to no public purpose,” the department said.
According to advice from their attorneys, the department decided it was in the best interest of the community to disable comments.
“We understand that this may not be a popular decision, however to avoid any possibility of violating anyone’s constitutional rights and limit our civil liabilities, as well as protect our public from those wishing to prey on them we are removing the public forum aspect of our social media pages,” UPD said in the public statement on Tuesday.