News: Loudoun County Sheriff's Office Now on Facebook and Twitter!

(Feb. 25, 2010) - In an effort to further reach out to the community the Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office announced the agency is now on Facebook and Twitter.

Members of the Facebook community are encouraged to become a fan of the Sheriff’s Office page on Facebook (search Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office). For those who prefer to receive tweets, you can follow the agency at www.twitter.com/loudounsheriff.


The agency has integrated the Alert Loudoun system with the two social media sites. Alerts issued through the system will appear as status updates on the Facebook fan page and be sent as tweets through Twitter. The Alert Loudoun system currently has over 60-thousand subscribers but the Loudoun Sheriff’s Office is using the social media sites in an attempt to reach out to a wider audience.

Over the past several years the Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office has been using technology to allow residents to stay informed. The following websites were developed by the Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office and the County’s Department of Information Technology to better serve the community:

• www.loudoun.gov/alert - Sign up and receive Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office alerts. The system was implemented in 2003 and allows those who sign up to receive the latest news affecting the county. The information can be sent to your e-mail as well as cell phones or pagers that receive text messaging. The free service is available to anyone with an e-mail account.

• www.loudoun.gov/crimereports - Residents can access local crime incident data in near real-time. The information is presented on Google Maps where users can review up-to-date crime information for any location under the jurisdiction of the Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office. Residents can also receive free e-mail crime alerts that are sent when crimes occur close to home or near any other address of interest. Users control the e-mail crime alerts they receive by specifying the address, the crime types, and the distance from the address from which they wish to receive alerts.

• www.loudoun.gov/traffic (also available via web browsing cell phones at www.loudoun.gov/mobiletraffic) - The website lists traffic incidents worked by the Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office, the Middleburg Police Department and the Purcellville Police Department. Traffic-related issues worked by the Virginia State Police will be listed if the trooper was dispatched by the Loudoun County Sheriff's Office Emergency Communications Center. Traffic incidents worked by the Leesburg Police Department are not listed.

• www.loudoun.gov/sheriffnews - The latest news releases from the Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office.

• www.loudoun.gov/sheriff - Click on Daily Crime Reports or Monthly Crime Analysis Report for cases of interest and the latest crime trends.

For other services available online, such as the online non-emergency traffic complaint form and department contact information, please visit www.loudoun.gov/sheriff.