Philly police now on Pinterest

The Philadelphia Police Department's Pinterest page went live yesterday, but you won't find officers' dreams of more fashion-forward uniforms or their favorite Frank Drebin quotes pinned up there.

According to police spokesman Cpl. Frank Domizio, the Pinterest page is a way for the department to further engage the community in solving crimes.

"This is very visual and I know that visual things are successful on the Internet," Domizio said. "When we switched out Facebook page to primarily photos with links, more people looked at what we posted. That's the goal here."

The department has nine boards on its Pinterest site - six for each of the detective divisions - and three others called "Inside the PPD," "Safety and Prevention" and "Cops in the Community." Photos of wanted or apprehended suspects will appear on the detective division boards while good news about the police department and crime prevention tips will appear on the other three.

Domizio said people can subscribe just to the boards they are interested in. For example, if you live in the Northeast Division and work in the Central Division, you can subscribe to just those two boards.

"The hope would be somebody would see something on our boards in their neighborhood and repin it so everyone who follows them would see it too," he said.

Domizio said he hopes to develop other boards as the department's Pinterest page takes shape.

In a blog post about the site's launch, Philadelphia Magazine editor Tom McGrath said the site was the "Most Depressing Pinterest Page Ever."

I disagree. I think the department's fourth foray into social media - it already has a strong presence on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube - is a step in the right direction. Everything takes time to build and I look forward to seeing what the department does with the site.

I'm also looking forward to seeing some Frank Drebin quotes pinned up there.