Port Authority Police Use Facebook to Help Suicidal Teen

Port Authority police used Facebook to track down a Paterson teen who posted suicidal messages and photos of the George Washington Bridge on the social networking site, an agency spokesman said Wednesday.

Officers moved quickly after a man alerted Paterson police to the alarming social media posts by an 18-year-old city resident Tuesday afternoon, according to police spokesman Joseph Pentangelo. Port Authority officers sent a photo of the teen from his Facebook account to colleagues at the GWB.

While police searched the bridge, Port Authority Police Lt. Thomas Michaels reached out to the teen on Facebook, asking him to call authorities and seek help, the New York Post reported.

Friends urged the teen to reach out to police in a thread of Facebook messages over two hours, the report said.

The Facebook outreach paid off when, according to police, the teen phoned Michaels around 3 p.m. to say he was on a bus in Paterson. The two agreed to meet and the teen was taken to an area hospital for evaluation.

Pentangelo said Michaels and Sgt. Nadine Rhem “performed outstandingly” in handling the call, reportedly the first time agency police used social media to prevent a potential suicide.

Now, Port Authority police say they plan to turn to social networking sites in similar situations.

“We got a good outcome,” Michaels told the Post. “This is another tool that we’ll have to use.”