Marshfield approves separate social media policies for police and fire after legal counsel warns of limits on moderation

Marshfield’s public safety committee voted to approve separate social media policies for the police and fire departments after deliberations about legal risk, moderation mechanics and how to handle artificial intelligence and audio content.

City counsel briefed the committee on recent federal case law affecting government entities’ ability to remove or restrict comments on official social pages, cautioning that keyword-based or automated removals may not withstand judicial scrutiny. Counsel said the proposed policies were drafted to limit legal exposure while providing an objective, ticketed process so removals are not handled subjectively by a single employee.

The policy for the police department — modeled in part on a municipal template the counsel cited — passed by roll call. The committee then considered a separate policy tailored to the fire department; fire leadership emphasized the need to keep the departments’ pages focused on Marshfield users and described procedures to remove out-of-area commenters who repeatedly hijack local posts. That second policy also passed by roll call.

Members asked whether the city needs a separate AI policy; the chair said an AI policy is forthcoming and the city is exploring private AI platforms for municipal use. The council discussed whether audio or video that contains profanity or graphic language should be automatically removed; staff said those posts would be reviewed on a case-by-case basis and could fall under narrowly defined safety exceptions in the policy.

Roll call votes appear in the meeting record for both approvals. Committee members directed staff to post the finalized policies to department pages, and officials said they will monitor legal developments and return for policy updates if necessary.