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TUCSON - Social Media: we use it to keep in contact with friends and family, to follow our favorite celebrities, and to advertise. Now it's being used to fight crime.

With just a stroke of the computer keys, and Facebook, Circle K Crime Busters comes to life. It's geared towards franchises in Arizona and Nevada. It shows surveillance photos of alleged suspects who have robbed the stores.

Circle K isn't the only one turning to face book to fight crime.

The Investigative Support Unit at the Pima County Sheriff's Department has detectives and support staff who are trained on Social Media investigation.

Sgt. James Roat says they use social media not only to get information to the public, but also to gather information in some of their investigations.

"Like in a case of a missing person or something of that nature, where we're looking to talk to someone in regards to a crime, sometimes we can gather information to find this person," Sgt. Roat says. "We might not have been aware of before, but it's on their website, on their Facebook page, on their MySpace, something of that nature that will give us another lead we might look into."

PCSD is snooping around social media sites, all in effort to keep the public safe.

"Yes, it's a another tool we can use as law enforcement to help to protect the public and help solve crime," Sgt. Roat says.

You can view Circle K's Crime Busters Facebook Page at:

http://www.facebook.com/CircleKAZCrimeBusters?sk=wall

You can also find Pima County Sheriff's Department on Facebook here, and Twitter here.