Salinas Police social media returns after City Manager takes it down for almost two months

SALINAS, Calif. (KION-TV)- Update: April 15, 2023, at 1:27 p.m.- Salinas City Manager Steve Carrigan told KION that he instructed Salinas Police to take down its Facebook and Instagram accounts back on Valentine's Day.

Carrigan said he was "not happy" with recent posts made by the department. He said posts made to sound humorous by the department he didn't find funny.

The city manager cited a specific post made on Valentine's Day that was "the last straw" before the page was taken down. The post made was made by many other law enforcement agencies throughout the state that day, asking people to report their exes if they have outstanding warrants.

The Santa Clara Sheriff's Office landed in similar hot water this year with a similar post and issued an apology, per KRON.

In an email sent on Feb. 22, obtained through a Public Records Request by KION, from Carrigan to Salinas Mayor Kimbley Craig and other city officials, Carrigan said, "I was not happy with two of their recent posts. I gave PD a warning and said if it happened again that, I would take their pages down. In the next week or so, I am going to meet with the Police Chief and the Community Relations Manager to put together a plan moving forward with safeguards so this does not happen again. I am not sure when I am going to reinstate PD’s social media platforms."

Carrigan said since then, Chief Roberto Filice said the entirety of the police department has gone through social media training to be better trained to interact with the community online. Social media posts will now be approved by City Public Information Officer Sophia Rome before they are made public, said Carrigan.

Carrigan said he gave approval for Salinas Police to reinstate their social media pages on Thursday.

When KION asked Salinas Police about their social media problems back on March 8, the department said it "had to fix some user issues on their end and had some technical issues their IT department was fixing."

That still seems to be their response after returning to social media on Thursday. On their first post back, they responded to a comment saying, "just some technical issues."

After two months of not answering our inquiries formally, Chief Filicie did reach out to KION and said his staff was trained on social media etiquette and referred to the whole thing as a non-issue.

Salinas Police have no ETA for return of their social media accounts

Update: March. 27, 2023, at 4:08 p.m.- Salinas Police has been without their Instagram or Facebook pages for nearly two months with no answers given as to why. Their last post was on Valentine's Day.

KION contacted Salinas Police, who said Chief Roberto Filice did not notify them when their social media accounts would be operational. Many residents online have voiced their frustration with Salinas Police's seeming lack of transparency, as many people rely on their posts to stay informed on what is going on in the community.

Salinas Police told KION that they were not hacked or banned but that they were working through "user issues."

Salinas Police social media to return shortly

Salinas Police's Instagram and Facebook accounts have gone missing without mentioning why. If you try to search for them, nothing comes up.

Salinas Police shed some light on this situation by saying their accounts are expected to return by the end of the week or sometime next week. They said they had to fix some user issues on their end and had some technical issues their IT department was fixing.

Their social media has been gone since Valentine's Day. Their last post was a post made by many other law enforcement agencies throughout the state that day, asking people to report their exes if they have outstanding warrants.

KION asked police if they had been banned from social media or hacked. They denied that either thing happened and assured us it was a technical issue.