Some police departments set up their Facebook (FB) page as a personal profile page; that is, one that’s meant for an individual person. Instead of someone “liking” your page, they become your friend. There are a few downsides to this, but chief among them is that FB means personal profiles to be for individuals and has been known to shut those pages down. Secondly, once you hit 5,000 friends, you can’t have any more. With a fan page, you don’t have that limit.
The good news is that a recent development in FB allows you to turn your friends into fans. If you have 2,000 friends, you can use the FB migration tool and not lose them, instead they’re converted into “likes” on a page. But the only other thing that goes with your fans are your profile photos. All your other photos and any other content should be downloaded for reposting on your new fan page.
Learn more directly from Facebook, including information on how to download your information for backup.
