Boston Cops Go Undercover Online To Crack Down on Concerts

Boston Police, according to an article at Slate, are engaging in a strange use of social media to fight crime. Or at least, to stop raucous music from disturbing the city. As the Slate writer says, "While police departments have been using social media to investigate for years, its use in such seemingly trivial crimes would be rather chilling, if these efforts didn’t seem so laughably inept."

Comments

What a waste

[PapayaSF]

OK, I can see why cops go undercover to prevent murders and bank robberies and such, but to head off noise complaints? Is there some reason why simply to responding to noise complaints isn't enough? Are there no longer any murders, rapes, and robberies in Boston to investigate or prevent? What a waste.

Re:What a waste

[ShaunC]

It's a lot easier to get paid to sit at a desk and troll Facebook all day.

Re:What a waste

[wierd_w]

A few simple questions to ask.

1) in what neighborhoods are these proactive activities being conducted?

2) what demographics specifically are benefitted by this malappropriation of resources?

Consider how the Kennedys managed to halt the cape windfarm project buildout for decades, because they didn't want to see any windmills from their summer homes.

Now... consider: "Martha's Vineyard + roudy teenagers with loud music", interrupting their wealthy, well to do lifestyles. (Yes, I know MV is not in boston. I am pointing at the stereotype.)

It isn't hard for me to see this kind of thing happening, if "Mr Kennedy is being disturbed by all those rave parties down the street."

The issue isn't that cracking down on rave parties has more merit than cracking down on rape, armed robbery, kidnappings, etc. It is that "the wishes of wealthy and influential citizens" are more important than those things.

Just something to think about.

Re:What a waste

[Seumas]

I don't know about that. I used Facebook for a few days, once, and having to scroll through the endless inane shit (even of people you know) is enough to make you want to use your service revolver on yourself.

Re:What a waste

[Shoten]

OK, I can see why cops go undercover to prevent murders and bank robberies and such, but to head off noise complaints? Is there some reason why simply to responding to noise complaints isn't enough? Are there no longer any murders, rapes, and robberies in Boston to investigate or prevent? What a waste.

These are the chuckleheads who found lite-brites with pictures of Mooninites (from Aqua Teen Hunger Force) around the city, and treated them like some kind of nuclear bomb with a ticking clock.

Re:What a waste

[Shadow99_1]

They could do, you know, what police used to do before they all became lazy. Back in the day we called it 'Walking a beat'. You know we'd go and assign them a neighbor and they could direct lost kids home, help old ladies cross the street, etc. All sorts of little things they did made neighborhoods want to have a cop around, rather then never wanting to see them. Not that there weren't bad cops back then, there were, but even the bad ones tended to do some good... Now 'innocent' people don't trust them and they only seem to do crap like this story....

Re:What a waste

[jklovanc]

Lets take a look at a couple of scenarios;
1. A cop on the internet spending a couple of hours to find a DIY event, a couple of cops to show up and tell them not to run it and a couple of cops to show up on the appointed time to verify it didn't happen.
Total manpower usage 4 hours.
2, Respond to a noise complaint at midnight to find 100 drunken punk rockers at a DIY event. That would require the following to break up;
* at least 10 cops for 2 to 3 hours
* Transport to jail for at least 5-10 idiots who start fights
* booking time,
* court timetime,
* public service administration
Total time a couple hundred hours.
Which would you think is a better use of resources? Preventing a loud party is much simpler than stopping one in progress.

Or Not.

[jelwell]

If you read the entire article, there's no proof that cops are going undercover. There's only proof that DIY show producers are paranoid. I'm more inclined to believe the latter.
Joseph Elwell.

Re:Or Not.

[sconeu]

Clearly, you're a cop trolling here. Nobody on Slashdot reads the articles.

Re:Y undercover?

[abigsmurf]

Having a couple of officers do undercover work to get the organisers is more efficient and effective then sending loads of officers to a concert, filling up the cells and having a high chance of the organisers getting away. It's also far more likely to discourage people from even attempting a show.

Plus there's lots of stuff that goes with the concerts other than just noise; poor safety, drink driving, general vandalism to the area, all the stuff that licenced concerts have to plan for or try to prevent.

Bizarre Story

[macwhizkid]

So, let's get this straight: there's no proof that the police are connected to this, just a half-baked assumption based on someone's analysis of a couple two-sentence emails? And the messages aren't even very funny anyway... ("LOL, he used the word concert . What a loser! Must be a cop!")

Slashdot editors, you need to step up your game.