Canadian Police Identify Suspect From Remotely-Accessed Stolen Laptop (cochraneeagle.com)

An anonymous reader writes: Last week a security consultant remotely logged into his stolen laptop, and gathered clues from a Facebook profile. Though it didn't provide the suspect's real name, the consultant shared the profile online, and says he's now receiving tips from other crime victims who are scouring through the profile's friends list. And according to a local newspaper, the Canadian police say they've now identified a suspect, although "there is a lot of work that needs to be done before we can lay charges."

But despite this apparent victory, one officer is also warning the public against sharing a suspect's identity on social media, according to the paper, "after the social media post may have wrongly identified a suspect."
"When you get to public shaming, I urge caution..." the police officer tells the newspaper. "As a person that gets stuff stolen, I understand the want to publicly shame someone... Give us all the info, and we will follow up once we have the evidence."

Comments

Re: May not even be the theif.

[Anonymous Coward]

But there is a problem here. The cops are out right lying. Yes report the crime. Yes give them evidence. No they will not investigate any laptop theft or any other petty crime. Ever. They will sit on that evidence and wait for that criminal to maybe one day get caught. Then if things line up and they realize they have other evidence they can tie to the criminal will they proceed with the original investigation and tack on additional charges.