By Zusha Elinson
MENLO PARK, Calif.--On a recent afternoon, police officer Mary
Ferguson visited the home of a teenager in this Silicon Valley
suburb who had been missing school and was on probation.
Officer Ferguson approached the boy's father as part of her
rounds and asked if he checks the teen's Facebook page to make sure
he's "on the up and up." When the man said he didn't, the officer
assured him she did--thanks to a Facebook account she uses as part
of her job that doesn't reveal her true identity. "I'll keep my eye
on him," she said.
Officer Ferguson, 34 years old, is sometimes called "The
Facebook Cop," but it isn't for her savvy use of social media. It
is because her salary and benefits are paid entirely by Facebook
Inc., which is based in this well-off city of 32,000.
In an unusual deal, the social-networking giant has agreed to
fund a $194,000-a-year police position, including salary and
benefits. The position is controlled by Menlo Park and the primary
duties of the job are to keep children in school, work with
juvenile offenders, and help large local businesses such as
Facebook plan for emergencies like fires, earthquakes or violent
intruders.
Company-funded police officers aren't new, but neither are they
widespread. In the 1990s, tech companies helped pay for and equip
computer-crime task forces at local police departments. Companies
and homeowners associations often hire off-duty officers for
security. Shopping malls frequently share the cost of an officer to
patrol and deal with theft, said Christopher Boyd, president of the
California Police Chiefs Association. A mall in Citrus Heights,
Calif., where Mr. Boyd is chief, has such an arrangement.
For their part, Facebook and Menlo Park leaders say the
agreement is a no-strings-attached gift. But police ethicists are
concerned about possible conflicts of interest. And some longtime
residents say it isn't a wholly altruistic endowment, being part of
a larger effort to clean up Menlo Park's historically lower-income
Belle Haven neighborhood, where crime is more prevalent and where
Facebook is expanding its sprawling headquarters.
Facebook, the largest employer in town with more than 3,500
local workers, says it doesn't expect special treatment. The
company has its own security team, headed by a former Secret
Service agent, Facebook said. "We just identified a need in the
community," said Genevieve Grdina, a company spokeswoman. "It's not
the 'Facebook officer'; it's the officer for the whole
community."
The company also helped pay for a new police substation in Belle
Haven. Facebook put up about $200,000 toward its design and
construction, and is paying the bulk of the $44,400 annual rent for
the location, which houses a handful of officers and staff,
according to the city and the company. The contributions come as
the Facebook expands its campus and works with a developer to build
394 housing units within walking distance where employees can
live.
"Facebook moved into a part of town that was blighted, that was
hurting, " said Menlo Park Mayor Ray Mueller. "One of the first
things we're seeing is this public safety net coming down to
protect everyone," he added, referencing the new police substation
and the officer.
There are some Facebook-specific tasks that fall to the city's
police department. About 12 times a month, Menlo Park detectives
assist out-of-state police with search warrants for information
about Facebook users, said Commander Dave Bertini.
When Facebook was preparing to move to Menlo Park from nearby
Palo Alto in 2011, the police department anticipated it would need
to hire an additional detective to handle requests for out-of-state
search warrants for information stored on the company's servers,
but that never occurred, he said.
Mr. Mueller says he believes more cities will look to create
deals like the one his city has with Facebook. But some police
ethics experts are leery.
"That raises some potential conflicts that, if I was the chief,
I am not sure I'd want to wrestle with," said Geoffrey Alpert, a
criminal-justice professor at University of South Carolina. "What
do you tell your officers about how to treat people who work at
Facebook?"
Matt Henry, a lifelong Belle Haven resident and past president
of an area neighborhood association, said he believes the
arrangement is more about what Facebook needs. "They're a little
nervous about being over here," he said. "They look at the crime
stats--they want everything to be cleaned up, so they said, 'Let's
put the police nearby.' "
Mayor Mueller disputes that suggestion. "Anyone who has the
perception that Facebook is trying to protect themselves really
doesn't understand the situation," he said. "That place is a
fortress--they don't need the Menlo Park Police to protect
them."
And Facebook has been a relatively quiet neighbor since it moved
in 2 1/2 years ago, said Commander Bertini.
Records show that aside from hundreds of 911 misdials coming
from the Facebook campus (caused by employees dialing 9 to reach an
outside line), there have been 81 incidents recorded by police at
the Facebook campus since the beginning of 2012.
These included a voice mail left on an answering machine from
someone stating they were "going to beat up" Facebook Chief
Executive Mark Zuckerberg; an early-morning report of shots fired
that turned out to be nearby duck hunters; and a variety of
trespassers, including one who wanted to have his Facebook account
deactivated and one carrying a sign reading "Cheryl Sandburg," a
misspelled reference to Chief Operating Officer Sheryl
Sandberg.
At the home of the truant teen, Officer Ferguson listened as the
boy's father, Efrain Garcia, talked about the difficulties of
keeping his son in line. She offered some advice on summer programs
and said she'd look into an older guy with whom his son had been
hanging around late at night.
Mr. Garcia seemed satisfied with her plan to aid him. Informed
that Facebook was paying her salary, he said, "I think it's a good
idea--it's what the community needs."
Write to Zusha Elinson at zusha.elinson@wsj.com
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