Swansea, SC (Paul Kirby) – The Swansea Police Department is another law enforcement agency that’s experienced great success with social media and the public’s assistance in helping to identify suspects and solve cases against criminals who have committed crimes in that town. During the last week of June, 2020, a business in the town was burglarized and in less that 24 hours, police had put out a call for help to the public via their social media page to identify and locate the suspects. In fewer than 12 hours from putting that request out, they had made several arrests and recovered the merchandise that was stolen.
The Lexington Ledger received a request from the department to help publicize some photos of two suspects who had stolen from a liquor store in the town by breaking in after hours. That same day, a story was written and publicized after the department ran the information on their Facebook page. They also notified surrounding law enforcement agencies and asked that they be on the lookout for these two suspects. Later that day, they got a call from a neighboring department which informed them that they had their suspects, a stolen car, a gun, and the missing liquor.
Several Swansea officers traveled to the neighboring jurisdiction to question the suspects. Eventually, two juveniles were arrested and charged with burglary, gun charges, and with having a stolen vehicle. 21 bottles of alcohol were taken and 20 were returned to the happy business owner.
Swansea Police once again took to social media to thank the community for providing information which helped lead to a quick arrest of the two kids. Both juveniles will soon be in court facing a family court judge to determine the punishment they will receive for their criminal mischief.
