In a new twist on the popular game show “Family Feud,” community members can have fun while helping the Durango Police Department locate wanted fugitives.
On DPD’s Facebook page, people can play “Fugitive Feud,” a parody that lists top suspects and their identifying information in the classic show’s format.
The game was the brainchild of Officer Cindi Taylor, and a new take on the weekly wanted posters DPD releases.
“I wanted to create something that would capture the community’s attention more than the wanted poster,” Taylor said.
She said community involvement is crucial to apprehending many fugitives.
“We hope that we can work with the community and that they will call in some of the fugitives because our officers are often busy on calls and cannot dedicate a great deal of time looking for these fugitives,” Taylor said.
The game is also an example of how DPD is expanding its social media presence on Facebook and Twitter to reach the community in an effort to lead to more arrests.
“We use it (social media) to educate our community on crime trends and encourage citizens to report crimes,” Taylor said. “We often try to use humor in our videos and posts to try to engage our community more.”
DPD must often walk the line between funny and offensive, and the intent is never to make light of a serious situation with the videos, Taylor said.
“We try not to push it too far, but we can’t please everyone all of the time,” she said. “It is a good way to engage with people, and a lot of us see bad things in our job as police officers, so humor sometimes helps with day-to-day things we see and deal with.”
Taylor said DPD will continue to post weekly wanted posters but will also release new episodes of “Fugitive Feud” monthly.
“With our community’s involvement on our social media this past year, they have helped us solve crimes, find criminals and missing and endangered people,” she said. “We also get necessary feedback from our community.”
She noted two missing person cases last year in which people contacted detectives with more information, which helped close both cases.
“The detectives used that information, and they were able to locate those people, who were safe in both instances,” Taylor said.
mrupani@durangoherald.com