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Fighting Crime With Facebook
Hugh Pickens writes writes "Demond Fernandez writes that Facebook has become a hot, new crime fighting tool for police in Conroe, Texas. Sergeant Joe Smart says Conroe police have been using its Facebook page to profile suspects and criminals since May — like a woman accused of stealing credit cards, masked gunmen caught on tape burglarizing a local store and a suspected computer thief, who the department's Facebook friends just helped police catch. 'It works. The witnesses are looking at it and they are giving us information,' says Smart. Police say Facebook friends in Conroe already helped them catch two wanted suspects and gather leads on several other open cases. Apparently the idea of using facebook to catch criminals is getting picked up in other places as the Toronto Police Service announced their goal is to have about 175 officers with online profiles by early November. 'We've prevented some pretty serious incidents simply because people reached out to the few police officers that were using social media,' says Constable Scott Mills, the force's social media officer. 'This is going to lead to a lot more trust and a lot more transparency.'"
Looks like "walking the beat" and being in contact with people matters. Who would have thought?
They aren't filtering anything or violating personal privacy. They're posting information and pictures on their page so that people can visit it (or see updates on their facebook status updates) and leave information if they know something about it. This all has been possible and done before, but now they're just using tools that are more accessible and relevant in the current generation. It's refreshing and good to see, actually.
* Officer McDuff has beat the crap out of Neighbor Joe and arrested him on fake drug charges. LAPD, NSA, and 3 others like this. * Neighbor Joe and Officer McDuff are no longer friends. * Attorney Smith and Neighbor Joe are now friends.
#fuckbeta #iamslashdot #dicemustdie
I do a fair amount of debt collection. Facebook is one my best sources for finding my deadbeats for service of process and wage garnishments.
No Inflation Taxation without Representation
Eat donuts and solve crimes! Bonus!!
There exists a dedicated Twitter account indexing most, if not almost all, people threatening other to death. Police doesn't do a thing with it.
Well, maybe if they made the damn thing in English, Texas cops could do something with it.
If I have been able to see further than others, it is because I bought a pair of binoculars.
The recent riot in Vancouver is an excellent example of this. The police probably caught a good hundred people directly thanks to social media. Maybe they would have found most of those people by other means.. but they basically had the worst offenders all identified within hours thanks to social media.
They aren't filtering anything or violating personal privacy. They're posting information and pictures on their page so that people can visit it (or see updates on their facebook status updates) and leave information if they know something about it. This all has been possible and done before, but now they're just using tools that are more accessible and relevant in the current generation. It's refreshing and good to see, actually.
So Facebook is a success.
The CIA tried creating a database of people but found the manpower far to expensive to be feasible. The only way was to crowd source the work. If they could trick 'idiots' into updating their own profile, law enforcement wouldn't have to work as hard to find information, and it would be virtually free. Welcome to Facebook, any governments wet dream.
What part of the summary, article or my post did you not understand? This is similar to newspapers posting information about crimes and maybe some relevant pictures and asking public for tips. It has nothing to do with datamining or violating your privacy on Facebook. FB is just the medium used to post that information and ask tips from public because like it or not, it's used by hundreds of millions of people and reaches people better than newspapers.
Use Google+
Exactly. It's a "wanted" poster in the post office. Only now, you don't have to go to the post office to see it.
You can be that no one would care if they posted this stuff on the city's web site, but because it's the city's FACEBOOK page it's suddenly an issue.
This has nothing to do with stupid kids or criminals posting on FB, it has nothing to do with whether FB is a success, and it's not an invasion of privacy.
It should be legal to brain racists with a fungo bat.
Why should it be legal to hit Al Sharpton with a bat?
A guy named Ramirez was falsely arrested in LA for the horrible beating of a Giants fan. The police were feeling the heat, so they went after Ramirez. The case almost immediately fell apart, but they kept saying it was the man in custody until they arrested the other two suspects.
In this case Ramirez is still in jail for a probation violation, which he is contesting. If you search for his name you will find all the details of the false arrest.
Now suppose that it's you, and you haven't done anything and don't have a criminal record. How do you fix that? Remember the Internet never forgets. Even if they take down the web page it will still hit on your name. Will they post a retraction? Maybe if you sue them. Outside of a trial it is very rare for someone to be declared "not guilty" in a legal sense.
They have no incentive to put up a retraction. It makes them look bad, so they will resist any responsibility. They would rather see an innocent person in jail then admit an error, so if you are just accused how much leverage do you think that you will have?
Just kiss your online presence goodbye. You will never get the interview with an online application process. That means you can't get hired at a national grocery store, for example, much less a tech job. You could be denied credit and not be told why. All these things can be overcome to some extent, but it could haunt you for the rest of your life.
Does it sound like such a good idea now? If you think you are immune your are being foolish. There is a lot of power here to hurt innocent people, and very little a victim can do to clear their name.
Why is Snark Required?