By rssfeeds-admin The department has been getting some traction on its Facebook page after the man who runs it says he wanted to bring some comedic relief and engage with the community.
Shirts from the Greensboro Police Department have gotten the attention of people across the globe. Many people even know the person behind it all.
“They’re like, ‘Who’s running the Greensboro Police Department Social Media Page?’ And that would be me,” Greensboro Police Department Public Information Coordinator Patrick DeSota said.
Desota became the public information coordinator two years ago.
“When I came into the position, I said, ‘Well, maybe I can use my background in radio to kind of lighten the mood a little bit. Every now and then, scatter in a little bit of comedy.’ I was like, ‘What’s something that grammatically not correct but funny but gets the point across?’” DeSota said.
Eventually hashtag “Don’t crime” became a hit, and people started using it on their own.
“One night I realized, ‘OK. Maybe tonight I can post something a little light-hearted, a little fun.’ I was thinking about snacks, and chocolate milk and how sometimes when people get hangry, they have a little snack, and they’re better after that. So I asked my wife. I said, ‘I want something to do with chocolate milk,’ and she goes, ‘Why don’t you have a little snacky snack, chocolate milk and don’t crime?’” DeSota said.
A woman in Kentucky saw the post and offered her creative skills.
“I was scrolling through Facebook … The algorithm … throw you the post that it thinks you’ll be interested in, even if it’s not a page you follow. And for some reason, it showed me the post from the Greensboro Police Department. I just popped in and said, … ‘I’m new to digital art, and I would love to draw a design,’” said the designer, Caitlin Monroe.
“She let us have the design. We put it on the back of the shirt, and, of course, when you’re walking, you see hashtag ‘Don’t crime’ on the front,” DeSota said.
They started with 250 shirts. Those sold out in an hour. After a high demand, they bumped up the supply to 1,000 shirts. Now, there’s only 40 left.
Desota said shirts have been bought from every state in the continental United States and even globally from New Zealand, Canada and Scotland.
He said there have been 20 million views on the Facebook page since the beginning of September.
“While they’re sharing it, they’re also scrolling on our page and seeing, ‘Oh, there could be a missing person. What does this person look like? Maybe I can help? Or there’s a community event coming up. Maybe I can go out to that,’” DeSota said.
Desota said the shirts sold so quickly that not even Chief John Thompson’s wife could get one.
The money from the shirts will go back to the Greensboro Police Foundation, which helps fund new equipment for the department.
He said if you miss out, they’re already considering ordering more.
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