COMMENTING ON OUR FB PAGE RULES
These Rules Apply ALL Followers of our Facebook Page:
Page Admins Are Authorized To Deviate From ANY Rule At Their Discretion at ANY time.
(Updated 1/15/2015)
With the popularity of our Facebook Page – we want to share with you our page posting, and comment rules. These rules are here to help protect the identity of those involved and integrity of Kokomo Scanner. Anyone can post to our Facebook Community Group, incident tips, questions and information. But we want to make sure that everyone understands our stance on the following, and violation of these will result in temporary or permanent banning.
Kokomo Scanner is a Pro Public Safety Page. Public Safety Bashing will not be condoned for ANY reason (Nor will Racism) If you do not like the concept or the discussions on this page, please leave the page without comment.
1. Privacy :
Never will names be posted on alerts and incident tips UNLESS released by the media, or agencies in request for an attempt to locate, or have been previously authorized for the name to be released. Don't ask us for names or descriptions of victims or their vehicles of anything because we will not give it to you. I don't care who you are or how worried you are about your loved ones.
Updated 4/25/2016: Those involved in the incident or family of, that wish to identify themselves releases us, and those who comment further from this rule as they opted to identify themselves. Juveniles names will NEVER be used for ANY reason when said juvenile is a VICTIM.
Patient status updates & any other confidential information will ONLY be released by IMMEDIATE family at their leisure.
1.A: COMMENTS TURNED OFF. This is pretty self explanatory.
We will limit these types of posts to the calls that involve death or serious bodily injury.
This was brought about due to people asking for names and/or descriptions of victims or vehicles. AND assigning blame and making false or even hurtful conclusions to a situation that often BOTH sides of an incident or accident will read later. Sometimes an accident is just an accident, and the family doesn’t need to read all that in their time of mourning. Instead if picking and choosing what is acceptable and unacceptable, there will just be NO COMMENTS. Do not take it to another posts comments to circumvent the comments off.
ANYONE violating this rule on MY page will be removed. We have already removed and banned people for trying to tell us about THEIR rights of free speech, This is NOT a GOVERNMENT PAGE, and we have the ABSOLUTE RIGHT to moderate in ANY way we see fit. The End.
2. Incident Addresses :
If possible, only street name, cross streets or block numbers will be released and not the actually physical address on residences.
– UNLESS released by the media, or agencies in request for an attempt to locate, or have been previously authorized for the address to be released.
When commenting on an incident to the Facebook page, please put yourself in the place of the victim and ask yourself “What would I want posted about this event and what personal information would I want withheld from the public?”
If you do that, you shouldn’t have any problems.
Updated 1/13/2015: Those involved in the incident or family of, that wish to identify the location releases us, and those who comment further from this rule as they opted to identify themselves.
And by family I don't mean your cousins wife. I mean immediate family.
3. Move by Move Posts :
During certain incidents, please keep certain incident comments to just general comments and not move by move. Active SWAT calls or tactics, Negotiation Incidents, Warrant Sweeps, Foot Pursuits, Man Hunts etc. Posting or Commenting that the SWAT Team is staged at a location and going to hit someone is Dangerous for the Team, and Reckless by the person who said it. You do NOT give SUSPECTS a heads-Up to prepare.
We do not want to post photos that will show officer positions, or equipment deployed giving away tactical information. Foot pursuits, the incident may be posted, with updates to what the call was and is about – however a move by move comment with officer details will not be posted. We believe in informing the public what is going on in their area, but officer safety as well.
4. Slander :
No slandering, curse words or anti’ posts will be acceptable and will be deleted and could get you blocked from the page.
Do not go on a rant bashing Kokomo or any of its Police Officers/Fire Fighters/EMS/Dispatchers/government agency or city officials. You have your own personal FB page and can do what you want there. It will not be tolerated here.
Making false assumptions or unfounded conjecture towards victims will not be allowed. It is rude and will not be tolerated.
UPDATED 9/3/2018
5. Instigating Arguments :
Comments that instigate arguments, nag at the poster or try to defy one of our administrators, call our posts into question for argument’s sake will not be tolerated. The post will be removed, and person banned. Depending on the offense, the person may be contacted about their violation and given the opportunity to rectify the situation.
Bad mouthing THIS page or the calls we post will also not be tolerated. Do it on YOUR page!
Added 1/13/2015:
If an admin removes your comment, or hides it – there is a reason for it (most likely against the rules) Please do not argue, fight about or repost the comment to defy the deletion/hide. You may contact us by private message, or through our E-Mail to discuss your issue privately.
6. STAY ON TOPIC:
Deviating from the posted topic as to take away from the original post is not allowed E.G. Missing Child post turns into anti-school posting. or Failure to pay bill at restaurant turns into said restaurant sucks post.
7. Minor Incidents :Updated 9/1/2018
Unless asked what is going on, we will not be posting minor incidents like a caller requests contact for barking dog for just example – there are other cases this may apply to.
8. Traffic Accidents:
We also respect privacy of those involved, so please no posting of vehicle license plates unless it has been involved in a special circumstance or unless released by the media, or agencies in request for an attempt to locate, or have been previously authorized for released. Vehicle descriptions may be posted if that information is broadcast and available. i.e. White Honda Accord, Black Chevy Pickup. And as a reminder NEVER post the accident victims names.
Updated 11/3/2015
9. Photographs : Updated 2/15/2023. Posting videos and pictures in the comments has been Disabled. When one is posted, We will review it and unhide it if appropriate. Photographs will be unhiden as long as the photo is taken from street view and something that would normally have been seen without having to violate privacy, or personal property. Please make sure photos do not have faces of victims or plate numbers. On serious accidents or incidents where a life may hang in the balance, Pictures will NOT be allowed. By posting to Kokomo Scanner you agree that your post is public and can be quoted and / or shared for any purpose. Any picture or video posted or shared can be shared with any other news or public safety agencies Your posting is the implied permission to share. I will often share a good picture on Twitter giving credit space permitting.
Added 1/14/2015
9.1 Meme’s or GIF’s :
Only about 1% of the memes/gifs we have seen on the page are topic related, funny or appropriate. The other 99% will be removed. If you continue to post these meme/gifs you could be banned.
10. HOUSE AND STRUCTURE FIRES :
Please no exact address, descriptions are allowed, block numbers and cross streets are allowed UNLESS released by the media, or agencies in request for an attempt to locate, or have been previously authorized for the address to be released. Don’t post pictures of the actual house unless it is a PUBLIC building or business. We will share Fire Department press releases with that later.
Updated 1/13/2015
House FIre photographs are allowed to be posted, as long as the photo is taken from street view of the RESPONDERS only. Please try to post the photos after the incident if at all possible.
11. Runaway Teens and Kids or Missing Persons : (Updated 11/3/2015)
Posting of missing persons are no longer allowed. UNLESS there is an active Silver or Amber Alert in effect. There may be exceptions allowed on a case by case basis. Those exceptions will be totally at the page owners discretion.
Private Message (PM) the page with any questions
12. Updates And Status Requests:
We often get comments of “any updates”. We will post updates as we can but our information source is what is broadcast over the air at the time of the incident. There are no follow-up “updates” to condition of people involved, etc. That type of update is up to the local media sources.
We do encourage posting links to news articles that are related to the threads discussed. Preferably posting them into the same thread that the original discussion was made and not a new thread. We are not a news agency and therefore do not get official press releases from such agencies with final word so we welcome our news agency posts.
13. Lost or Found Animals:
Post photos of your lost or found animal with description of where and when they went missing or found and complete contact information to recover, or to get a hold of person posting is needed. In dire needs, we may share the post as main news, but not in all cases. NOTE: Not all lost and found pets will be moved to the main wall. We can and will in dire situations, but due to the large amount of posts of this nature we can’t flood our main wall with lost and found animals. We will do our best to direct people to the Scanner Community Group when we can. AVOID pictures with children in them if at all possible.
Added 1/13/2015
14. Posting And Sharing Links:
We do encourage posting links of news articles that are related to the threads discussed. Preferably posting them into the same thread that the original discussion was made and not a new thread. we are not a news agency and therefore do not get official press releases from such agencies with final word. So we welcome our news agency posts.
Links, and shares of other Facebook pages, groups, websites that direct others to somewhere else are NOT ALLOWED in threads and new posts. We recognize that there may be some great resources out there, but in order to cut down and keep spam out of the page we have made this strict rule. In the past we have had people come to our page and try to get their “plug” in for their page, because, yes we reach a huge amount of people. But if we allow one plug we have to allow them all. And well, you know once we start allowing them, then that is all the threads turn into is – Directing people elsewhere and that is not what our page is about. When Admins share a post, from another group or authorize one to be share that is allowed.
UPDATED 11/3/2015
16. Requests For Money/GoFundMe Requests:
You are welcome to post anything like that to the Community Group section. We will no longer be sharing them in the main posting area.
(Unless there is special circumstance) That decision will be made by our staff.
The contents of this page and scanner feed are in no way associated with the agencies being broadcast. We are in NO WAY affiliated With ANY Law Enforcement or Public Safety Agency.
By listening to the information heard on the scanner stream, you are agreeing to use it for entertainment purposes only. Any misuse of this live feed can lead to criminal charges. Fan Pages, Groups and Rescues that want to post information to our fan page and include your links, and pages can email us here: KokomoScanner@hotmail.com.
This page can be updated as time goes. So please revisit it if you are in doubt if it is allowed
If in doubt or have a question, message us.