GREECE, N.Y. — From sharing photos to keeping in touch with friends, social media is for the most part a positive experience. For law enforcement, it is also a tool to monitor suspects and make arrests. The Greece Police Department is utilizing your time on social media to help them identify larceny suspects.

What You Need To Know

  • The Greece Police Department is located at 6 Vince Tofany Blvd.

  • You can call in anonymous tips to (585) 865-9200 or email gpdtips@greeceny.gov

  • Greece police posts security photos of suspects on the department's Facebook page that has more than 21,000 followers.

Leveraging Facebook is just one of many ways the Greece Police Department is solving crimes, specifically when it comes to retail thefts.

Lt. Chris Bittner says that just about every day someone is walking out of a retail store around town with merchandise they did not pay for. Bittner heads up the Greece Police Department’s new retail theft group to help deter organized retail crime in Greece.

“We felt it was incumbent upon us as a police department knowing that we have a high level of retail establishments in town, that we are going to try to take proactive steps and measures to try to attack this,” Bittner said.

Greece police posts security photos of suspects on the department's Facebook page that has more than 21,000 followers. These "wanted" photos spark online tips, help identify suspects and lead to arrests.

“Our success rate is high. Probably I would say over 90% of the people we post are identified,” Bittner said. “We are hoping that the more that we can make it a little bit harder for the people to come to the town of Greece to steal and think that they can get away with it, the better off it is going to be where they are going to go somewhere else or just not commit the crime at all.”

The people photographed on security surveillance who are suspected of crimes are innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. You'll find suspect photos and more on the Greece Police Department Facebook page.