LEWISTON — Police in the Twin Cities no longer want to hear from members of the public on Facebook.

Police in both Lewiston and Auburn have shut down commenting for all future posts they make on the social media platform.

In Lewiston, police made the announcement on Thursday after they were ordered by the deputy city administrator to shut down commenting for all future posts.

By law, they are not allowed to remove comments from previous posts.

The move gained support in the City Council earlier this month when it was discussed near the end of an April 1 meeting. The concept was supported by all councilors who spoke on the matter, most of whom described the type of comments that tend to pile up in reaction to police news posted on Facebook.

“The hateful and more racist and xenophobic things that get posted, it would be great not to see,” said Ward 1 Councilor Joshua Nagine. “It doesn’t do any good for our community.”

“I haven’t seen much useful information that comes up in those comments,” said Ward 3 Councilor Scott Harriman. “I think the vast amount of really, really hateful and really disgusting comments that are shown on there, specifically targeting a subset of our population … I think it does more of a harm to our community than good.”

The councilors initially had planned to put out the idea of shutting down comments as an agenda item so that the public could weigh in on the matter.

In the end, they took a “thumbs up” vote at the April 1 meeting and Deputy City Administrator Brian O’Malley declared that he would instruct Police Chief David St. Pierre to shut down commenting on the department Facebook page.

“I don’t think the public is going to love that idea,” said Ward 5 Councilor Eryn M. Soule-Leclair, “but at this point I think it’s probably necessary because some of those comments are pretty horrible.”

She was right about some members of the public disagreeing with the move made by the City Council, some of whom would have preferred to see the matter brought before the public.

“If you’re going to do this, at least give the public the opportunity to change your mind,” said Andrew Jones, an active member of the Facebook group Lewiston Matters. “This is the first amendment we are talking about here; it deserves input from the citizens.”

But even Mayor Carl Sheline was adamant.

“The city,” he said on Thursday, “does not need to provide a platform for vulgar and racist comments and I am pleased that the council was able to come together to support the police department making this change.”

Some councilors fretted that with comments shut down on Facebook, some residents might not know where else to pass along important information to police.

But most agreed that Facebook is not the proper forum for that kind of information to begin with. Police, in their Facebook post on Thursday, advised that there have always been better ways for the public to interact with them.

There’s a telephone tip line at 207-513-3194. Tips can also be sent along via a form at lewistonmaine.gov/TIP. And the public is always encouraged to contact the police officers listed in the posts police make about crime investigations.

“We want to be clear,” police wrote in their Thursday afternoon Facebook post. “We are here to protect and serve you. We can do that best when we are engaging with folks out in the community and by getting reports via the ways we mentioned above. Please know: if you call us, we’re there for you.”

Police also said they do not have the manpower to monitor their Facebook pages for inappropriate comments.

Later Thursday afternoon, the city of Lewiston Facebook page addressed the matter of comments being disabled on the police department’s posts.

“We know a lot of people have had questions about this,” the city post read.

Comments on the city page, as it happens, are still allowed.

In Auburn,  it was unclear why and when Auburn police made the move to restrict comments on their Facebook posts. Comment blocking appears to have begun April 4 after police made a post about a drug arrest. Comments on that post were blocked, as they were on subsequent posts.

Auburn Deputy Police Chief Timothy Cougle on Friday explained that department’s decision to block comments.

“Several weeks ago, we made the decision to disable public comments on certain social media posts, specifically those that identify individuals,” he said. “Examples of such posts include reports on serious traffic crashes where we must identify victims or others involved, as well as high-profile arrests where suspects are named.”

“This decision was not made lightly,” he continued. “After careful consideration, we recognized a significant increase in the frequency and nature of inappropriate public comments. Many of these included personal attacks, insults, inappropriate language, and defamatory remarks.

“Given this trend, it became clear that the Auburn Police Department should not play a role—directly or indirectly — in facilitating such content.”

Cougle added that comments may be allowed on certain kinds of posts.

“Our social media platforms exist to provide the community with important and timely public information,” he said. “We are neither obligated nor inclined to offer a space for individuals to disparage others. However, we will continue to allow public comments on posts related to community events, road closures, and other essential public safety matters.”