Cross "Law & Order" with "The Andy Griffith Show," mix in an occasional commentary, and you might have something like the Weaver Police Department Facebook page.

It’s been a year since the department created the page, said Lt. Charles Plitt, who administers it. The original intent was to get information to residents about events in their community, to warn about potential areas of concern and open lines of communication.

But the page has become increasingly popular as daily posts relay a mix of community happenings with a humorous perspective, giving a peek at how the department functions.

Weaver is a town in Calhoun County between Alexandria and Jacksonville. The department’s Facebook page currently has slightly more than 2,300 likes, which may not seem like much until you consider that the city’s population is an estimated 3,068.

Calhoun County is home to several law enforcement agencies that use social media to keep residents informed, occasionally posting everything from mugshots to catch wanted suspects or surveillance footage. For other agencies, posts are usually short, business-like, and to the point.



Weaver Police handle several hundred cases a month, from speeding, to car burglaries, to domestic violence cases. Looking at the Facebook page, a casual reader gets a taste of what it’s like.

Posts deal with high and low crime, such as the woman pulled over for speeding who claimed the “vapor” from her cough drops made her accelerate excessively, or a friendly reminder to a heroin addict that if your friend turns blue, “it’s usually a sign that something is bad wrong. Do not hesitate to call 911. Seconds count!”

The page sometimes provides additional information, such as a recent weather forecast:

Today: Cold, Wet

Tonight: Dark, Cold, Wet

Other posts give residents a view of the sometimes humorous but never dull daily doings of their officers:

“Night shift officers arrested a DUI over the weekend. This guy had an alcohol level that would have prevented me from finding my car...let alone driving it!”

The voice behind those posts is Plitt, who has worked with the department for 19 years. He heads up the department’s investigations, but the Facebook posts are usually done from home when he’s not on the clock, he said.

“Originally, we were only going to do posts once a week,” he said. “But then we started to get several questions from citizens. They would message us, express concerns, let us know what was going on.”

Then posts began to get longer, and funnier. Last month, Plitt kept readers informed about a group of traveling salespeople who had not secured a license to go from door-to-door in the community. There was also the evening when officers picked up someone described as a violent sex offender wearing a GPS device. Plitt offers details, he said, but does not release photos or names out of respect for the children of those arrested.

The humor is offered, he said, to show readers that police are human. Not every situation calls for humor, he said, and all posts try to be “professional and tactful."

Responses have ranged from amused - “Lt. Plitt, you crack me up on some of your humor” – to the not so amused. One post recently dealt with a private message sent in opposition to Alabama’s immigration law. Plitt responded by stating that “most of the officers in this county disagree with the immigration law that was passed,” but he objected to the language of the message, which he reproduced in the post.

In another recent post, Plitt offered his explanation for why his humor is not “politically correct:”

“When I offer my opinion on this page, it is just that....an opinion. It’s no secret that I dislike Thieves, Robbers, Rapists, Child molesters, and all other criminal types, so when I post about their criminal activities on here...I have no mercy. I will not apologize for that.”

The Alabama Association of Chiefs of Police recently commented on one post: “GREAT use of your Dept's Social Media to humanize your folks and let the citizens know you are regular folks just like them.”