Tools of the 21st-century police department
By Colin Lecher Posted 02.25.2013 at 4:39 pm 5 Comments

NYPD Car
NYPD Car Wikimedia Commons

Last year was a record low for murders in New York City, with only 414 (eep) counted. Part of the reason for that number? Facebook, apparently.

According to the New York Post, the NYPD monitored social media to hit teen gang members with conspiracy charges by watching sites for "taunts and threats," then making "Mafia-style" cases against them. Police Commissioner Ray Kelly told the Post: “In each initiative, the teams help us monitor social media and we gather information we can use on these groups.”

That process started in October, and the murder rate is down another 33 percent in 2013. Apparently, a gang member threatening another gang member on Facebook can lead to a conspiracy charge. (Although why are two rival gang members friends on Facebook?)

This will nicely complement the iPhone-theft squad recently installed in the department.

[New York Post]

5 Comments

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joe.sauce
02/25/13 at 4:56 pm

Well, you don't have to be friends with someone to send them a message on Facebook. If they're having such good success with this, why would you post an article letting everyone know about it? If they don't know, they'll keep doing it, and keep getting themselves caught, and keep more people (hopefully) alive.

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lcpltom
02/25/13 at 5:25 pm

Well, since they are filing conspiracy charges, some evidence of conspiracy has to be presented in court. Since this evidence is facebook threats related to gang members, its likely the gangs already know the police are using this method.

The fact that it continues to be effective even though the gangs should already know about it doesn't speak much for the gang members.

Now the question is how long before someone successfully argues that comments made freely on the internet are private, or that these comments are protected by free speech? That will be what determines the long term success of a program like this.

Also, where's the task force involved with making sure I can't buy a 16+ oz drink?

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johnt007871
02/25/13 at 5:26 pm

I sat on a jury for a case where the only reason the gang members were caught is because they stole smart phones, which could be traced. To make it better, they video'd themselves on the same phone. Oops! lol

I would imagine a smart phone squad would get a lot of work to do. Especially for fugitives.

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Vega_Obscura
02/25/13 at 5:43 pm

With the way government officials have been reacting to the recent shootings, I'm surprised the police didn't scan PSN/XBox Live activity since video games are responsible for gun violence.

What happened to all that nonsense?

You can just publicly slander an entire industry and place the woes of the world on it's shoulders then forget like never happened...?

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