A growing number of West Philly residents are trying to get “The Fuzz” back online.

Resident Amara Rockar has started an online petition aimed at persuading police Commissioner Charles Ramsey to allow Detective Joseph Murray to start tweeting again. Murray’s Twitter account, which has provided timely updates on crime and public safety for several years, has been offline since Jan. 11.

“Detective Murray’s use of Twitter is exactly the kind of useful and positive police-community interaction that the Philadelphia Police Department should encourage, not silence,” the petition reads. “Please approve his Social Media use under his official title immediately so that his updates to our community may resume.”

Murray’s Twitter account fell victim to the police department’s skittishness about its officers using social media publicly.

Murray’s updates on crime were invaluable for citizen awareness.

Southwest Philly’s tweeting detective, Joe Murray, whose updates on Twitter have helped people in the neighborhood keep up with crime trends and have helped make him a local celebrity, has suspended his account until he gets the go ahead from the department’s top brass.

Murray said by e-mail that some inadvisable uses of social media within the Philadelphia Police Department recently prompted him to send a memo to police Commissioner Charles Ramsey seeking formal permission to continue his @thefuzz9143 Twitter account.

The Philadelphia Police Department has increased its use of social media in recent months and it has helped in solving crimes.

Murray said on Twitter that he will let followers know when he gets the go ahead to start tweeting again.

OK, here’s your chance to read about our vaunted neighborhood Southwest Detective Joe Murray, aka @TheFuzz9143, in action.

Murray and his former partner in Southwest Philly, Sgt. John Hoyt, agreed to serve as doughnut testers for a Philadelphia Inquirer review of Federal Donuts, the “new, fancy-pants doughnut and fried chicken shop in Pennsport.”

Murray on Federal’s Key Lime doughnut:

“It wasn’t overly tart. I won’t eat doughnuts with filling in them – you eat it and it’s all over you. It’s too much, it’s gross,” Murray said. “But this was absolutely perfect – the concept and texture. You get the crust and crumbs from it. It even had the little crisps on it.”

Murray and Hoyt were up front about the stereotype they were playing into, but both said they are way more of coffee snobs than doughnut snobs.