Facebook no help in search for missing boy

We feel so deeply for the family of Harley Dilly, the 14-year-old boy who's been missing since Dec. 20. It's terrible the family has suffered for the last week not knowing if Harley is safe, not knowing where he is and not knowing when he'll come home. The circumstances of his disappearance — rebelling against his parents — or for other reasons don't really matter at this time. What matters is that he's found safe and returned to his family. The mystery surrounding his being gone, where he is and if he is safe has rallied the community in good and positive ways to help in the search for him. We fear, however, that Port Clinton police Chief Rob Hickman's initial use of social media to announce that Harley was missing is not a proper way for authorities to conduct the public's business. Posting news releases and updates at the police department's Facebook page is just asking for trouble in our view, and Hickman, more than any chief around, seems to use the page to conduct business quite often. We get it that the department's Facebook page is a place where residents can go to get information and there are plenty of people who like the page. But substituting social media posts and refusing to answer questions from reporters is a recipe for abuse.We get it that it's not always easy fielding questions from reporters, and some times news stories don't get reported the way a police chief might want it reported. But answering questions from the public — and from reporters — is a responsibility of the job every leader of any public agency must accept. In every human interaction there is opportunity for misunderstandings, but one-sided communication at a social media site is a big invitation for abuse and misinformation to take hold and become a truth in and of itself, a truth in which there is no truth. Chief Hickman might have learned that as his posts at Facebook were shared, misinterpreted and causing more damage to the search for Harley because by Thursday and Friday he was holding news conferences to update the community, making himself available for questions as he should, quelling unsubstantiated speculation about where he was or why he's not been located. That might be a lesson learned for Hickman and he might cool down his over-reliance on social media in the future. But what's important now, and what's most important more than anything else, is that Harley come home safe and be reunited with his family. Police released this still shot Dec. 25, believed to be the last video evidence of the whereabouts of 14-year-old Harley Dilly take o Dec. 20.