Social Media Comment Policy

Posts/comments on a Sturgeon Bay Police Department (SBPD) managed social media website containing any of the following inappropriate forms of content are not to be permitted and are subject to removal by the Chief of Police or his/her designees:

  1. Profane, obscene, discriminatory or pornographic content and/or language;
  2. Content that could compromise an ongoing investigation; 
  3. Personal identifying information of any person, except as allowed under the Freedom of Information Act;
  4. Defamatory or personal attacks;
  5. Threats to any person or organization;
  6. Posts/comments in support of, or in opposition to, any political campaigns or ballot measures;
  7. Solicitation of commerce, including but not limited to advertising of any business or product for sale;
  8. Conduct in violation of any federal, state or local law; 
  9. Encouragement of illegal activity;
  10. Information that may tend to compromise the safety or security of the public or public systems; or
  11. Content that violates a legal ownership interest, such as copyright or trademark, of any party.

Repeated or egregious violations of this policy may result in being “banned”, or disabled from the ability to post further comments.

Additionally, we ask that friends/family of SBPD personnel do not “tag” personnel (linking those police employees to any personal social media accounts they may have) in posts/comments on Sturgeon Bay Police Department managed social media sites, both to protect police personnel privacy and for safety concerns.

The Sturgeon Bay Police Department’s use of social media is provided as a public service to increase communication with the community. This page is not constantly monitored, and should never be used to report crimes or requests for police service. The SBPD disclaims liability for comments on its social media pages posted by any person or entity other than the Sturgeon Bay Police Department’s official account, and inclusion of comments does not imply endorsement by the SBPD. Furthermore, the SBPD disclaims liability for ads, links, videos, promoted content or comments accessible from any external web page. The responsibility for external content or comments rests with the organizations or individuals providing them. Any inclusion of external content or comments does not imply endorsement by the SBPD. The SBPD cannot edit any posts made on its social media sites, however, the SPBD reserves the right to remove or hide comments that do not adhere to our post/comment policy.