Duquesne police have a new chief and Facebook page this year

Duquesne Police Department has a new chief and online presence this year.

Thomas Dunlevy, 45, of Pittsburgh was named head of the department in early January.

He replaced Richard Scott Adams, son of longtime chief Richard “Lefty” Adams. The father served as chief from 1994 through Feb. 2016 when he retired after more than 50 years of service.

The son took over as chief in March 2016 after being assistant chief since 2006. Duquesne has 15 full-time officers and no part-timers.

Dunlevy began his law enforcement career as a patrolman in Duquesne in 1999.

He worked up the ladder to sergeant and in 2002 became a full-time federal task force officer for the Drug Enforcement Administration.

Dunlevy said it feels good to be back in the city and hopes to make some positive changes.

“I walked into a department that is not technology-driven,” he said. “We do police work here based on the procedures that have been in place for decades. My goal as chief is to try to unite the community and the police department. I believe strongly in doing technology-based investigations.”

That was evident when the chief created the department's first social media page on Facebook.

It launched Jan. 28 and has since had 6,200 people look at the page and 2,200 take some action on it, either commenting, messaging or clicking posts.

Dunlevy said the response was not bad for a city of approximately 5,500 people.

“It's exactly what I expected,” he said. “I wanted to create a means for the citizens to have an open forum to communicate with the police department. They don't call on the phone so much. They rely on social media to get their news on the area.”

The first Facebook posts included a photo of a Duquesne police car, department patches and introduction by the chief.

Duquesne police made an arrest and took drugs and a gun off the streets the day after the Facebook page went up.

The investigation was sparked by messages sent via social media about someone selling drugs along North Second Street.

“I received hundreds of private messages through that page with concerns from citizens that we are addressing,” Dunlevy said.

Police executed a search warrant at a residence in the 100 block of that street on Monday. Officers recovered suspected crack cocaine, other controlled substances and paraphernalia.

A Duquesne man and a Rankin man were taken into custody in connection with the incident.

Dunlevy said he hopes to add more technology to the department such as computers to the department's four police vehicles, surveillance cameras in strategic places throughout the city and licence plate readers along Route 837.The computers could be bought through asset forfeiture funds, which are available to Duquesne as part of Dunlevy's DEA task force connection. The surveillance cameras may come from Allegheny County District Attorney Stephen A. Zappala Jr.'s office.

Michael DiVittorio is a Tribune-Review staff writer. Reach him at 412-871-2367, mdivittorio@tribweb.com or via Twitter @MikeJdiVittorio.