It is the policy of the Stafford Township Police Department to utilize this page to advise the public on matters of public concern, foster community outreach efforts, investigate crimes, and to provide a mechanism of citizen feedback. EXPECTATIONS
1. The leaders of the Stafford Township Police Department believe that honest, civil, and productive discussions provide the best environment for citizens to understand the work of their government and participate in constructive engagement.
2. We ask users to consider that our social media feeds may be viewed by children and other impressionable people. Please avoid profanity, personal attacks, bullying, or use of incorrect information. Limited Public Forum. Stafford Township Police social media accounts are created and maintained as limited public forums under the federal caselaw pertaining to the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The Police Department invites members of the public to view and, where possible, provide comments or other engagement on Police Department social media accounts. However, the law permits the Stafford Township Police Department to hide and/or delete comments that are not protected speech under the First Amendment and relevant case law. The Police Department will not hide and/or delete comments solely because such comments are critical of the Stafford Township Police Department or its officials or employees. Prohibited Content. Relevant First Amendment caselaw permits us to hide or delete certain comments on the Stafford Township Police social media accounts. The following may be hidden or deleted:
1. Comments directly advocating violence or illegal activity.
2. Comments containing direct criminal threats as defined by local, state, or federal law.
3. Comments containing obscenity, which is defined as sexually explicit and/or pornographic content that is patently offensive, appeals to prurient interest, and lacks serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value;
4. Comments that directly promote or advocate that the Stafford Township Police Department illegally discriminates based on race, age, religion, gender, national origin, disability, sexual orientation, veteran status, or any other legally protected class if such comments violate local, state, or federal law;
5. Comments containing links to malware and/or malicious content that affects the normal functioning of a computer system, server, or browser;
6. Duplicate comments posted repeatedly within a short period of time;
7. Comments containing actual defamation against a person, either as determined by a court or comments that are patently defamatory by easily discovered facts;
8. Comments that contain images or other content that violate the intellectual property or copyright rights of someone else, if the owner of that property notifies us that the property was posted in a comment on the police department social media account(s).
9. Comments that contain a hyperlink to any website other than those controlled by the Stafford Township Police Department. This will be done without regard to the viewpoint of the comment containing such a link or the content of the site to which the link redirects.
10. Comments on that could potentially reveal the identities of juvenile offenders, compromise victim safety, or undermine ongoing investigations.
11. Comments that grossly deviate from the topic of the post.
