Following the celebration in downtown Durham after the New England Patriots’ win at Super Bowl LI, the UNH Police Department posted pictures on social media looking for individuals that caused damage to vehicles parked on Main Street during the gathering

“Our goal has always been to allow people to celebrate safely,” Detective Thomas Kilroy of the Durham Police Department said.

“At this time, things are still under investigation and we’ve managed to identify 11 students thus far,” Kilroy said.

The department had posted pictures of the suspects on Facebook and Twitter, asking fellow UNH community members if they knew the identities of the people in question so that they could be brought in and spoken to. This was not the first time that the police department has used social media to their benefit, and they had decided to do so again with this incident due to the success they had in the past.

“It was shocking, the amount of videos we were getting,” Kilroy said. He went on to explain how the department received several hundred videos every hour from students who were willing to help out. For the most part, students acted safely and respectfully. It was only a small group of individuals that caused the damage that occurred to the vehicles.

Kilroy said that his department is very appreciative of everyone that’s played a role in helping to identify the suspected individuals that caused damage during an otherwise peaceful celebration.