There’s no question social media has played an unfortunate role in many of the state’s tragedies over the past couple of years, from a killer sharing photos of 17-year-old Bianca Devins to a Facebook livestream capturing the murders of 10 innocent people at a grocery store in a predominantly black neighborhood in Buffalo.

Social media has forced members of law enforcement to pay closer attention to it than ever before.

“Even just a few years ago, social media was kind of in the category of nice to have for law enforcement. And so much has changed in the last few years that now it's pretty much a necessity,” said Broome County Undersheriff Eric Janis.

He has seen the role social media can play in the crimes his deputies are responding to. In mid-December, his office received calls about a man with a gun and body armor driving around town.

“A lot of times, like in a case where somebody is putting somebody on Facebook Live and they're putting something live-streaming, I will get calls about it if it's something that's, you know, concerning to the public. And then we'll usually assign somebody to monitor that while we look into it to see what's going on,” said Janis.

Deputies quickly began following the stream as the suspect traveled throughout the county, and later apprehended him at a home. No one was harmed.

In the wake of how tragedies in other parts of the state unfolded, Janis says it’s crucial to respond quickly and always take threats seriously.

“To me, it's surprising, but the things that some people will post about crimes are committing, they'll post videos, they’ll post photos, they'll sometimes brag about it and it makes it very easy. I mean, we do look at social media to gather information; that's probably half of what we use it for is to try to obtain information,” said Janis.

Janis says that practice will only continue as social media grows, with the hope of responding to potential danger before it takes place.