Putnam: Bath Twp. police use arresting videos, wit to grow Facebook followers

Judy Putnam | Lansing State Journal

Show Caption Hide Caption Bath Twp. Police Department appreciate their Facebook followers Follow Bath Twp. police on Facebook? You might want to!

BATH TWP. – The police department in this small Clinton County township has more Facebook followers than it has residents.

A trio of younger Bath Twp. officers has tended the social media channel – with 14,000 followers and growing.

They use puns, memes, irreverent videos and posts with a dash of smart aleck.

They poke fun at police donut love.

They post cute photos, often of Officer Aiko, the department’s canine.

A recent photo of traffic stopped for mom and ducklings: “Protestors shut down roadway.”

That one had 1,400 likes, more than 200 shares and 108 comments.

“We like to show people that we like to have fun, too, even though our job is very serious,” said Officer Avery Lyon. He and his partner, Michael Lapham, share Facebook postings with Officer Trenton Bailey, who posted the duckling photo.

More: Three of Bath's four valedictorians are siblings

Lyon’s been working on the page in his two years with the force. During that time Facebook has become a useful tool for engaging the public and getting information out to the public, he said

When a resident allowed a door-to-door salesperson to use the bathroom, then later found the window bathroom window unlocked, the department used Facebook to send out a warning, and perhaps prevent burglaries.

A staged video of a motorist asking for his ticket to be dismissed drew a whopping 116,000 views. (He got his ticket thrown out by praising the post’s Facebook page.)

They also have their critics. A wry “Breaking news” alert last fall offering to check the illegal homemade drug meth for Zika virus drew anger that they were mocking two serious health issues.

While some are out-of-state Facebook users disgruntled with police, Lyon said officers try to reach out and talk through any criticism with locals.

Often, the target of their jokes is their neighbor, East Lansing Police Department, with only a third of the Facebook followers.

But East Lansing is bringing its game. When Bath recently posted a photo of a rainbow over the department’s building, East Lansing countered with one of its own: A double rainbow over the ELPD offices.

Judy Putnam is a columnist with the Lansing State Journal. Contact her at (517) 267-1304, at jputnam@lsj.com, and on Twitter @JudyPutnam.