Butler County Emergency Services has had some “negative experiences” with social media.

Steve Bicehouse, director of the agency, said people have called 911 to report information they saw online, including social media posts, which sometimes turn out to be untrue.

Bicehouse said information shared online has caused fear in communities where a threat is proven unwarranted or did not exist. On June 17, a woman posted on Facebook a warning about a shooter at exit 99 off Interstate 79 near Portersville.

The woman received an active shooter alert, but the location of her posting was incorrect.

“The misinformation has a significant impact on the community, because a lot of it gets shared, and it's not legitimate information, but there is no way to check the legitimacy of it,” Bicehouse said. “Things can snowball into something where there isn’t, and it can cause widespread panic ... it can be devastating to people.”

While some online posts turn out to be false, Bicehouse said dispatchers always take a caller’s information and funnel it to the appropriate agency. Once a threat is responded to and investigated, dispatchers or a member of the responding agency can update the caller on the situation, according to Bicehouse.

State police respond to calls throughout Butler County, and Josh Black, public information officer for the state police Troop D, said officers take all reports the agency receives seriously.

“Even if they think it’s not credible or it’s made up, report it to us so we can look into it,” Black said. “I would rather take a proactive approach than take a reactive approach not knowing about it until after the fact.”

Black said state police also receive reports using online sources. Safe2Say Something is an anonymous online reporting database where users can submit public safety concerns that are filtered to local municipal agencies.

According to Black, state police have a uniform response to reports, no matter how they come in.

“Once we get a threat, whether we receive through Safe2Say or a phone call to barracks or to 911, we take all those threats seriously, and we look into those,” Black said. “We respond to it just like we respond to a crash or burglary. We would see what kind of threat it is, we look at the timeliness, the severity of the threat.”

The Safe2Say platform is most active during the school year, Black said, when it is used to report bullying or other threats.

Black also said state police have an online statewide database, Pennsylvania Criminal Intelligence Center (PACIC), where different troops and different municipal agencies can share information on emergency reports.

“If we receive a threat, as an example, there is going to be some type of gathering, we’ll use PACIC ... to put that out to police agencies in the area,” Black said.

Once an online report is taken care of, or if it is found to be incongruous or even false, law enforcement can mark it online.

On top of its page on Butler County’s website, Butler County Emergency Services also has an official Facebook page where information is shared regarding local alerts, like severe weather or safety tips.

Bicehouse said there are other Facebook pages that post about emergencies or 911 calls, which he said people should be wary of. Overall, Bicehouse said people should investigate the source of an online emergency before sharing it or reporting it to emergency services.

“If we get an individual who calls in here (with) a concern about something posted, particularly if they have a municipal police department, we refer them to (that police department),” Bicehouse said. “If it is something 911 can dispute, we can do that.”

Butler County’s Facebook page is titled “Butler County PA Emergency Services.”