Image: ECPD

What city has the government agency with the coolest social media presence?  That’d be New York City.  But coming in second in the Government Social Media Golden Post Awards Outstanding Social Media competition was none other than the Eau Claire Police Department. How so and what for? They won for posts like this ...

When Officer Kyle Roder received a scam phone message claiming he would be arrested by local officers for a tax violation if he did not return the call, he decided to con the con artist. Watch the video below to hear Roder’s award-winning conversation with an IRS agent impersonator.  It’s hijinks like these that make the ECPD’s social media pages a multi-award-winning Chippewa Valley favorite.

“It is always great to be recognized nationally and internationally because it shows that what we are doing locally is working,” Roder said.  But it’s not all about the glory, he said. “Social media is all about results, not awards. Just like our officers on patrol, we deliver a professional, sincere service to our community and the results and recognition follow.”

The Government Social Media Awards are given at an annual conference hosted by the Government Social Media Organization, an advisory institute that provides networking and educational opportunities to government agencies that practice social media outreach.  This year’s convention was held in Denver, Colorado.

After the phone call in the video ended, ECPD was unable to reach the scammers again to follow up. “Although I was never able to reveal my identity, with 14 million YouTube views there's a good chance 'James Maxwell Johnson' saw the video," Roder said with a smiley emoticon.

We assume these honors are almost as important to the ECPD as their big 2nd place social media win in Volume One's 2018 Best of the Chippewa Valley Reader Poll. Find them on Facebook.