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Google Used to ID Hit-And-Run Victim

Posted by timothy on from the power-of-the-net dept.

jafiwam writes "Google has been used (according to CNN) to help identify a hit-and-run victim from 1993. Detective Pat Ditter used Google to identify victim David Glen Lewis, 39 who died after being hit by a car while out of town. An image involving a fairly unique pair of glasses was found on the Texas Department of Public Safety web site, and a similar image on the Doe Network (involved in unsolved cases). This was after Det. Ditter began working on unsolved cases utilizing Google as a tool in that process. Makes you wonder how it took law enforcement that long to think of this. Process servers, employers and significant others already use Google for theses purposes... why not cops?"

13 of 134 comments (clear)

  1. i'm glad by ginotech · · Score: 4, Interesting

    that law enforcement and government agencies are finally starting to use the internet to its full potential.

  2. Similar story by erick99 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Last year when I was doing web work for a car dealer a state policeman happened to come into the showroom asking for assistance. He had a piece of a tailight lens and that was it. Something had hit a parked car on some private property and that piece of lens was the only evidence. When the parts department said they couldn't help I poked my head up and volunteered. This drew some sneers from the "pros" behind the counter who felt that I couldn't possibly help with anything related to cars. Anyway, using Google I narrowed it down to a specific year and model of a Ford pickup. The police were able to track down the owner - it's not that big of a town. It was fun, though it took about two hours and I got quite a headache looking at so many images.

    --
    http://www.busyweather.com/
  3. Facial Recognition software? by StateOfTheUnion · · Score: 4, Interesting
    In my ignorance I may be opening a can of worms here but . . .

    What about facial recognition software used for this purpose? If drivers license pictures were standardized and pictures taken at the morgue were made to the same standard (assuming the face of the disceased in not injured/damaged) is facial recognition software good enough to be used to try to identify John Does?

  4. So... what is the news here? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

    The masses are finally discovering google's advanced search capabilities?

    Now if google could only date (date when google archived the information) the result entries....

  5. I call this google stalking ... by adzoox · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I do this all the time with problematic eBayers and Yahoo auction buyers and sellers that I run into.

    I once had a guy email me and accuse me of stealing his Bang & Olufsen turntable that I was selling on ebay. He said he sold one on ebay two weeks prior to my auction and that the bidder (who happened to be 100 miles from me had made a claim that it was broken. He paid out on the claim. He accused me of being in cohorts with someone to pull a fast one and get the turntable, collect on insurance, then resell it on ebay for a double profit.

    Well, I ended up googling his email address. Turns out - I got something to this affect on a "Discreet Personals Website" in Colorado:

    "Male looking for other males for discreet, private meetings - into play, but nothing too rough"

    I emailed him and told him I had found some information about him that I might post to eBayers That Suck dot com.

    He didn't bother me after that.

    I always google any problematic customer to see if they are a complainer on line or have anything "strange" about them - or are possibly on another business's hit list.

    I google potential girlfriends names and if I have them, email addresses.

    If you google my ID; adzoox, it brings up my website and home town of Greenville SC and things about me in the Upstate of South Carolina. Lots of google results are my slashdot posts from the past 3-4 months.

    --
    Yell & scream & rant & rave... it's no use... you need a shaaaave ~ Bugs Bunny
    1. Re:I call this google stalking ... by aLe-ph-1(sh) · · Score: 1, Interesting

      This reminds me of something someone did to me when I was looking for a new apartment to share with room mates on CL . He came up with a list of things that were basically ture about me, through a simple search, I guess. I was first suprised, & taken aback. I felt violated, in a way, but I guess this is just how things go in our informative society. But then I thought about things a while, and thought that this was actual a good way to weed out potential trouble makers, and also, to scare off others. I never did get in that room share situation, but it did make me think.

      --
      sig!wind down the juuice, let the tubes roar with the glow of alternative powers, not they that be." me, today...
  6. Re:They do use Google... by sgant · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Then why don't they have a tier system of police work?

    You have a guy in the office, not a gun-carrying/badge-waving cop...but a researcher. Someone that digs through the evidence, searches on the web to come up with possible solutions to cases then turn them over to the gun-carrying/badge-waving guys to go out and make an arrest or search warrent or other "cop-doings".

    Just a thought...and not, not the CSI guys.

    --

    "Leo Fender was in a 'state of grace' when he designed the Stratocaster." -- Paul Reed Smith
  7. Re:They do use Google... by StateOfTheUnion · · Score: 2, Interesting
    They do . . . at many police stations these higher tier individuals are called detectives. Uniformed officers typically pass cases off to detectives when the case involves significant research.

    Unfortunately, detectives are often given a certain number of hours to work a case. If they can't get a significant lead or significant potential progress on the case within that time, the case gets shelved and the detective is handed another case. Though I don't disagree that a better priorization system may result in more effective use of detective's time, I think that the root cause of the problem is that most police departments don't have enough people to get the job done.

  8. Another incidence of google solving crime by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I saw this on a TLC documentary about a year ago. This guy Patrick Critton hijacked a Canadian plane to Cuba back in 1971 and got away. The Canadian police re-opened the case, and searched for the man in all the police databases. Nothing was found. So then they did a Google search on the guys name, and lo and behold, one link from a local newspaper in Westchester County, NY had this guys name. The police went down there and sure enough, it was the same guy, over 30 years later. He had turned his life around and become a pillar in the community, mentor to young kids, etc etc.

    Here's a link
    http://www.canoe.ca/CNEWSLaw0206/11_hijacker-cp.ht ml

  9. Re:CSI: Google Geek by 0x0d0a · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Assisted by his Magic Blue Glowy Thing from ThinkGeek that exposes all evidence.

    --
    May we never see th
  10. Re:Sort of off topic... by black+mariah · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Yes, and there's not a damn thing spooky about it. It's actually quite useful. I found a short piece of code I wrote this way. I'd lost it in a crash and thought it was gone forever. I'd posted it to a Python newsgroup and it was still on there.

    --
    'Standards' in computing only impress those who are impressed by things like 'standards'.
  11. robots.txt will soon be illegal by ftzdomino · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Does this mean disallowing google from your robots.txt is obstruction of justice?

  12. Did the cops use this to find a drug dealer? by babajuma · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I have been wondering about this. Earlier this year i was looking at the stats for my personal web page i set up on geocities.

    For some reason i was getting all these hits from google with people typing in "tommy savage" who ran a guest house i stayed at in Amsterdam. Turns out he the law thinks he is some huge drug dealer. Shipping huge amounts of grass into Greece.

    The big question is did all the cops have to do is type his name into google and up pops my website with directions on how to find him?
    I hope not because incoent or guilty he looked after me when i stayed there.

    Here is the website incase any of you are curious.
    http://www.geocities.com/babajuma
    or if you just want the bit about tommy
    http://www.geocities.com/babajuma/tommy.html