Community Guidelines
Effective date: August 14, 2026
Last updated: August 14, 2026
Kokomo Scanner exists to help people understand what is happening around Kokomo, Howard County, and surrounding communities. The comments should add useful information—not drama, rumors, or harm.
The short version is simple:
Be helpful. Be respectful. Remember that real people may be having one of
the worst days of their lives.
These Guidelines apply to comments, replies, photos, reports, and every other community interaction in the Kokomo Scanner app and browser experience. They are part of the Kokomo Scanner Terms of Use.
1. Commenting is a privilege
Most people come to Kokomo Scanner to find out what is happening. Nobody is entitled to use an incident thread as a stage for arguments, cruelty, rumors, or advertising.
Kokomo Scanner may remove content or temporarily or permanently restrict commenting when these Guidelines are violated. Whenever practical, a person who loses commenting privileges may continue reading public incident information.
Admins and Owners are authorized to enforce these Guidelines. They do not have to argue about a decision in the comment thread or hold a public vote before acting.
2. Protect victims, patients, and families
Do not post or guess:
- a suspect's name before responsible authorities have publicly identified the person;
- a victim's, patient’s, or deceased person's name before responsible authorities or the family have made it public;
- private addresses, phone numbers, email addresses, license-plate numbers, or other personal identifying information;
- photos or details that reveal a person's private medical condition; or
- vehicle descriptions on injury-accident incidents when those details could identify an injured person before proper notification.
Do not make fun of, ridicule, shame, or blame victims, patients, families, or people experiencing a crisis. Wishing death or harm on an overdose patient—or anyone else—is never acceptable.
3. Do not interfere with an incident
Do not encourage people to approach an active scene, follow emergency vehicles, cross a safety perimeter, obstruct responders, or take matters into their own hands.
Do not use Kokomo Scanner to request emergency help. Call 911 or the appropriate local emergency service.
4. Initial information can change
Scanner traffic reflects what responders are initially told, not a completed investigation. A dispatch does not prove that a crime occurred, that an accusation is true, or that a particular person was involved.
Do not present guesses, rumors, accusations, or unverified social-media claims as facts. Do not identify a person as a suspect or blame someone based only on scanner traffic. If you share an update, clearly distinguish firsthand information from something you heard elsewhere.
Deliberately false or dangerously misleading content may be removed.
5. No harassment, threats, or hate
Do not:
- threaten, stalk, bully, intimidate, or harass anyone;
- use slurs or attack a person or group because of race, color, ethnicity, national origin, religion, sex, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, disability, medical condition, age, or another protected characteristic;
- encourage violence, self-harm, retaliation, or vigilante action;
- target another community member for ridicule because they misunderstood an incident or asked a question; or
- harass Kokomo Scanner Admins or Owners for enforcing the rules.
Disagreement is allowed. Personal attacks are not.
6. Keep disputes with agencies and businesses elsewhere
An incident thread is not the place to attack public-safety personnel, settle a grievance with an agency, or organize harassment. Constructive, incident-specific questions may be allowed; insults, personal attacks, and unverified accusations are not. Public-safety agencies have their own official contact channels and pages for complaints or policy discussions.
Do not use an incident thread to make false or unsupported accusations, threaten a business, or organize attacks because you dislike its service or have a personal dispute. Use the business's normal customer-service process or another appropriate forum.
7. No trolling or manufactured drama
Do not start arguments intentionally or for sport. This includes baiting, repeatedly derailing the discussion, provoking people for reactions, posting the same point over and over, or turning another person's emergency into entertainment.
Keep comments reasonably connected to the incident. Political arguments, personal feuds, and unrelated debates may be removed even when they do not violate another rule.
8. No sexual exploitation or child endangerment
Kokomo Scanner has zero tolerance for content or conduct that sexually exploits, abuses, grooms, traffics, or endangers a child. Never submit, request, link to, describe for exploitative purposes, or attempt to obtain child sexual abuse material.
Pornographic content, sexual solicitation, nonconsensual intimate content, and sexual exploitation of any person are prohibited.
Kokomo Scanner may preserve and report suspected illegal or child-endangerment content to the appropriate service provider or authority as required or reasonably necessary.
9. No graphic, illegal, or dangerous content
Do not post:
- graphic images of severe injury, death, abuse, or cruelty;
- instructions or encouragement for criminal or dangerously reckless conduct;
- scams, fraud, malware, stolen credentials, or attempts to obtain private account information;
- content that promotes terrorism or violent extremist activity; or
- anything else that is illegal to possess, create, or distribute.
10. Photos must be yours to share
Only upload a photo when you created it or have permission to share it. Do not upload copyrighted photos copied from another page, private account, news outlet, or photographer without permission.
Before uploading, check the background for faces, house numbers, license plates, medical information, children, or other details that should not be public. Do not upload a photo taken by entering a restricted scene, interfering with responders, trespassing, or putting yourself or someone else in danger.
11. No spam, advertising, or self-promotion
Do not advertise or promote a Facebook page, group, business, product, service, fundraiser, event, referral link, or unrelated website without Kokomo Scanner's permission.
Repeated comments, link dumping, engagement bait, and attempts to redirect people away from the incident discussion may be removed.
12. Be yourself
Do not impersonate another person, Kokomo Scanner, a public-safety agency, a government official, or an Admin or Owner. Do not create another account to evade a commenting restriction, suspension, block, or other enforcement action.
Admins and Owners may choose to comment as Kokomo Scanner or under their own verified profile name. Ordinary community members cannot speak as Kokomo Scanner.
13. Reporting and blocking are separate
Use Report when a specific comment, reply, or photo may violate these Guidelines. Give enough information for an Admin or Owner to understand the concern. Reports are private and do not automatically remove content.
Use Block member when you do not want to see eligible content from that community member. Blocking affects your view; it does not erase the content for everyone or prevent staff from reviewing it.
Do not file false or repetitive reports to punish someone for a disagreement.
14. What happens after a violation
Kokomo Scanner considers the content, context, severity, account history, and risk to others. Depending on the situation, staff may:
- leave the content in place;
- remove a comment, reply, or photo;
- restrict commenting temporarily or permanently;
- suspend or delete an account;
- preserve relevant records; or
- contact a provider or appropriate authority when required or reasonably necessary.
Serious conduct may result in immediate action. Kokomo Scanner does not have to issue warnings in a particular order, restore removed content, or continue a public conversation about an enforcement decision.
15. Questions or urgent safety concerns
Use the in-app reporting tool for a specific comment or photo. For a broader safety concern, account question, or problem that cannot be reported in the app, contact:
Kokomo Scanner
If someone is in immediate danger, call 911. Do not wait for a response from Kokomo Scanner.