by Kevin Cody
The Hermosa Police Department’s Facebook and Instagram posts were so lame in their early days that Lieutenant Landon Phillips, who helped form the program’s social media team in 2018, had trouble enlisting fellow officers to work on it. After some thought, he traced the problem to himself and his superiors.
“Every Facebook and Instagram post had to be passed through me, and up the chain of command for approval,” he recalled in an interview this week. “It was killing creativity.”
Phillips, now a captain, turned for advice to a friend, Lt. Erick Lee, who headed up the Gardena Police Department’s popular social media program. Lee advised Phillips to let cops be cops.
“That’s when I decided to ‘take my hands off the wheel,’” Phillips said.
The decision ran against police culture, and so have the results.
Instead of stern admonitions, the uncensored posts border on self-parody, with production values that are part TikTok, part “Breaking Bad.”
When Phillips took over, he sent two officers to social media classes. But that’s no longer necessary.
“The younger officers already know how to produce posts,” he said.
“They finish their arrest reports, then edit their video, write the text, add music and upload the post from their cell phones.”
A recent, 90 second post received over 2,000 views.
The post opens to a black screen with white text headlined “Season One: Narcos Hermosa.” It reads, “The following reel depicts actual encounters of subjects facing criminal charges… Viewer discretion advised.”
The voiceover takes its inspiration from Sgt. Joe Friday of the 1950s cop show “Dragnet.” But in place of “Just the facts, mam,” the tagline is, “If you see something, say something.” The pumping sound track is the “Bad Boys” theme from “Cops.”
“We’re appealing to an audience that gets its information on social media. If we just threw up a spreadsheet, they wouldn’t look at it. Residents who want to dig deeper can find crime stats on our website,” Phillips said.
“Season One: Narcos” quickly cuts to two officers running down a suspect on the Hermosa pier, at sunset. The cinema verite style is established by the fact that the video is real. It’s taken from the officers’ body cams.
In the aftermath of the 1991 Rodney King video, the first police arrest video to go viral, police protested legislative mandates that they wear body cams.
In today’s GoPros era, police body cam reels, like fist pumps in a surfing reel, are embraced as a way to “claim” arrests.
“The law requires officers to turn their body cams on during enforcement contacts, such as traffic stops and when crimes are in progress,” Phillips said. Body cams do not need to be turned on during casual exchanges, such as police responding to requests for directions, he said.
Following the pier chase, the post cuts to officers chasing three suspects down a Hermosa residential street, at night, shouting “Put your hands up. On the ground.” The soundtrack is “Tuyo,” the theme song from “Narcos.”
The camera zooms in on the suspects’ open car trunk to show 10 clear trash bags of marijuana buds, and a bag of mushrooms.
Back at the station, $100s and $20s are fanned out on a table, next to the contraband.
Captain Phillips acknowledged the photos were arranged for dramatic effect. But he added, “It’s common to organize photographs of large amounts of contraband for prosecutors to show to juries.”
In another post, dated January 8, 2023, $100s and $20s are fanned out alongside two cell phones, and two dozen dime bags of cocaine.
The caption reads, “Last night, this Uber driver got busted for selling booger sugar to his customers. The driver was so impressed with his ride to jail, he gave us 5 Stars, and said we had excellent service and awesome music.”
Not all the posts are arrest related.
“We try to make it one-third arrests, one third public service, and one-third goofy stuff,” Phillips said.
A post from a bike safety clinic at Hermosa Valley School last October shows a large officer riding a tiny tricycle.
A December post pictured 12 officers wearing mustaches they grew for the Movember Prostate Cancer fundraiser.
In October, at the start of lobster season, photos were posted of two lobster sniffing German Shepherds with a Hermosa officer and a game warden. The dogs had sniffed out multiple hoopnetters on the Hermosa pier with undersized lobsters. The lobster-sniffing Shepherds are two of only four in California, the post noted.
A January 2022 post of Chief Paul LeBaron addressing the city council illustrates one of the reasons a social media presence is important to law enforcement. “Undercover officers had purchased 2,400 pills, of which 1,400 tested positive for fentanyl. Our detectives learned that many narcotics dealers are using popular social media platforms to advertise their products, and to facilitate the buying and selling of illegal narcotics,” he told the council.
Another post showed the chief in a dunk tank at the Memorial Day Weekend Fiesta.
The department’s social media team has 10 police, and community service officers.
“The team discusses what to post. But we don’t tell the team a post has to have A, B, and C. There’s no approval process. Speed and timeliness are important,” Phillips said.
“Sometimes we’ll take something down because it’s rubbing the community the wrong way. But not often. We understand not everyone is going to like everything.”
Posts typically elicit 10 to 20 comments. The majority are appreciative. Occasionally viewers complain the posts are too flippant.
“Nothing is funny about drugs that could possibly be laced and killing people,” a viewer commented about the Uber post.
Phillips’ “hands off the wheel” approach applies to public comments, as well.
“We don’t filter the comments. Some people will ask why we don’t enforce speed limits on The Strand. Others will ask if we don’t have better things to do. We let the public have their say,” Phillips said. ER
