Local police using social media for crime updates
Desert Hot Springs High School and a few other schools were placed on lockdown on Thursday after a man was spotted a few blocks away from the campus with a shotgun.
Students told KESQ and CBS Local 2 reporter Joe Galli that they were scared.
“At first we thought is was a lockdown drill, but she was on the loud speaker it was real after awhile,” said a student who was not identified.
“While he (the gunman) wasn’t on the high school campus, he was within what would have been walking distance,” said Dale Mondary, chief of the Desert Hot Springs Police Department.
When officers found the man, he ended up taking his life own inside an SUV a few blocks away from the school. Students were never in any danger.
Mondary took to Twitter to update students and parents of the lockdown after misinformation started to be spread on social media.
“Some parents were tweeting out to their sons or daughters that there was a gun man on the campus, and we wanted to make sure that we got that nipped in the bud,” Mondary said.
Police agencies across the Coachella Valley are more often using social media including live streams. These posts can be quickly shared with thousands in just a matter of seconds.
“The faster that we can get the proper and correct information out the more important it is,” Mondary said.
Parents of students at Desert Hot Springs High School think this is great way to keep them in the loop.
“Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram. Everyone uses it and everyone is able to know what is going on at the drop of a hat,” said Luis Phares of Desert Hot Springs.
