The MFPD communications team has established preliminary community guidelines for ethical behavior for our social media sites in order to provide a safe online space to find information and share your thoughts. Official MFPD information is released on our official social media sites and all of our online communications will take place there and on the MFPD website.

Do not hesitate to ask questions to clarify what you may have heard or learned elsewhere, but do not expect any posts on any other accounts at this time. To better serve you, the office of the Chief is working to build a reliable and trusted relationship and two-way communication with the community. The aim is to get more direct feedback from as many people in the community as possible.

The decorum of a court room in our social media spaces and board meetings is expected, while allowing all forms of protected speech, including critical comments. Please see what forms of speech are not protected by reviewing our all of our community guidelines.

Consequences of violating these rules may be temporary or permanent removal from our social media spaces. If you violate the community guidelines, you will be warned and then removed from the site for a week after a third violation. If you violate the guidelines three more times, you will be warned each time and then removed from the site for a month. If you violate the guidelines again, you will be warned and then removed permanently after the third violation. If you think the decision was made in error, you can ask for a review of the decision by contacting the communication team for the office of Fire Chief Eddie Dwyer and making your case.

1. Respectful communication. Members should always engage in respectful and courteous communication, avoiding insults, harassment, or demeaning language. Vulgar or explicit language, adult, or NSFW (not safe for work) content is not permitted.

2. No hate speech or discrimination. Content promoting hate or discrimination based on protected categories such as race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, religion, age or disability is strictly prohibited.

3. Privacy. Members must respect the privacy of others and not share personal information without consent. This includes doxing and the harassment of public officials or private citizens.

4. Content relevance and source crediting. Posts and discussions should be relevant to the community’s purpose and topics. When sharing information or content from other sources, members should credit the original source. This includes spamming; the excessive posting of self-promotional material, spam, repeated, or irrelevant content is prohibited.

5. Constructive criticism. When offering criticism, it should be constructive and aimed at helping and improving, rather than disparaging or belittling. Your freedom of speech is valued and constructive criticism in posts is welcomed, but posts that are not protected, such as harassment or disinformation, will be removed.

6. Report rule violations including false or malicious posts. Members should report any content or behavior that violates the community guidelines. Do not make false or malicious reports to the communications group or posts, or send multiple reports or posts about the same issue in bad faith. Do not engage in conspiracy theories or spread misinformation, knowingly or unknowingly; it is your obligation to source your content reliably.

Report any violations by messaging us on the social media site you are using or email us at mfpdcommgroup@gmail.com. We will be updating our community guidelines regularly to make sure they align with the mission statement. For a bibliography used in creating this code, or any other inquires, please email questions, complaints, suggestions and thoughts to mfpdcommgroup@gmail.com.