Top Cop At SEPTA Also A Top Tweeter
By KYW social media editor Melony Roy
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - Sometimes help can be just a tweet away.
The top cop at SEPTA has taken to the social network to help serve and protect its riders, with a little bit of an attitude.
Veteran police officer Tom Nestel - who's pursuing a doctorate in criminology - joined twitter because it's a direct line to commuters.
"I think it's the immediacy of response people can let the chief of transit police know that there's a problem and me address that, usually that day," he explains. "People see that when they provide info that it gets acted on and that's important to me."
Nestel says his focus is to improve rider safety:
"Well the goal is for people to see the great work that the transit police are doing, for people to understand that we really are focusing on issues that concern them, make the ride safer, taking away some of the harassment that occurs and to have a little fun.
His sense of humor shows through with the hashtag #cheesesandwich -- a reference to what prisoners are served in jail, is usually added to tweets that lead to arrests.
You can tweet the transit police chief @tnestel3.
