Oceana Sheriff's Office Needs Tech Reform

[XLFD]

In 2012, I sent a FOIA request to the Oceana County Sheriff's Office (OCSO) about a fatal bicycle accident, and received their report by the mail.  The OCSO sent the full report investigation and a CD with accident scene pictures, which is a far cry from the way the Mason County Sheriff's Office (MCSO) has done with the fatal motorcycle accident report involving Scott & Tracy Butler from 2015, which they have asserted is fully exempt over one year after the accident.

But a couple of recent events have shown how far behind-the-times the OCSO is in providing information to the public.  When James Hepworth was declared missing in early August, the Oceana County Sheriff became the incident commander, as Hepworth was from rural Oceana County.  Over this last weekend, a couple of fishermen drowned off the shores of  the Little Sable Point Lighthouse, one whose body has yet to be recovered at press time, and once again the OCS is the incident commander.

Currently, the Oceana County Sheriff is Robert Farber (above), who has held the position since 2008, but announced his retirement earlier this year.  Three of his underlings tried for his position under the Republican ticket, with Lt. Craig Mast effectively winning the post easily over the undersheriff and a deputy at the August primary election, but unable to claim the position until the beginning of next year.

Mast was able to get the votes likely due to his 23 years of experience and likeability, but he also mentioned a couple of programs he would like to get started in Oceana County:  bringing a K-9 unit to the OCSO and implementing a schools security initiative like they did in Mason County with the Boot.  The issue of providing information to the public did not appear to find its way in any of the three candidate's platforms.

Yet, the need is there, for even if they do respond to all FOIA requests timely and properly, there is a lot more situations when the public desires to be kept informed of what's going on.  In the Hepworth case, news reports have commented on one news release issued to them from the OCSO, but there is nothing to be found on the county website or other social media to be found concerning the missing person at all, including status and updates.  As of today the county site for the OCSO looks like this (http://oceana.mi.us/sheriff/):

You get some contact information, the address, and the sheriff's name, but it is otherwise under construction and you cannot get anywhere else in it.  The OCSO Facebook page is equally disappointing, perhaps more so.  There have been no posts since November 13, 2015-- in fact there have only been posts in that month, showing pictures from various vantage points of one of their squad cars:

Surely, a Facebook page could be a minimal way of talking to the public about situations in flux, like the search for Hepworth or the recovery efforts of the missing fisherman.  Even the aforementioned Mason County Sheriff's Office (previously faulted) has regular alerts, news and the inevitable pats-on-their-own-backs on their Facebook page.  And more of the same plus at their county pages.

Wouldn't it be a lot better place to the south of us if instead of emulating Mason County Sheriff by spending a couple hundred thousand dollars on unsafe door hardware for supposed student safety, they would spend a small fraction of that money (and the time involved) on being able to get up-to-date information, updates, and alerts out to the public? 

The families and friends of the missing people might agree on that.  And in the end, they might actually save some time and money by being able to transmit FOIA responses via E-mail or public posting rather than preparing hard copies and CD's sent through snail mail.  The new sheriff in town needs to establish long-neglected technological adequacy as a priority for his department.

[AQUAMAN]

I think that the FOIA response situation too needs updating and improvement for LE, that's kinda strange that they haven't caught up with current technology, many also say the same at our courthouse about FOIA's and their software on their computers, strange. They should, as government agencies, have the most up to date technology imho. Many thanks and hats off to retiring Sheriff Farber, for a job well done and so much needed service to us, same goes for Mast as new Sheriff, both to me at least, look to be local Heroes. Nice guys that we need and want in these positions of authority and trust.