The New York City Police Department (NYPD) has just created a new unit focused on patrolling not the streets but the Internet, specifically, social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, and MySpace (but not Google +?) looking for people who admit to having committed crimes — or who admit plans to do so.
“Newly named Assistant Commissioner Kevin O’Connor, one of the department’s online and gang gurus, has been put in charge of the new juvenile justice unit,” writes the New York Daily News today. “He and his staff will mine social media, looking for info about troublesome house parties, gang showdowns and other potential mayhem, sources said.
“The power of social media to empower both criminals and cops has been on full display in London this week, where riots and looting have been spreading dramatically.”
Interesting that the unit appears focused on juvenile crime.
“In June, an overcrowded house party in East New York, Brooklyn that was advertised on Facebook as “Freaky Friday” ended in a shooting that left one man dead and seven injured,” The Huffington Post reports.
“After that incident Police Commissioner Ray Kelly told reporters ‘We look at social networking. We’re very much focused on weekend parties, the type of parties that happened last weekend, and we visit them ahead of time. But not every one of these parties happen at a place we can readily identify… Our gang division, our borough personnel look at party advertisements. A lot of these things are at peoples’ apartments.’
“In March, 18-year-old Anthony Collao was killed in an anti-gay attack at a Woodhaven, Queens, house party advertised on Facebook. Calvin Pietri, one of six later arrested, bragged about the murder on Facebook.
“NY1 asked New Yorkers in June what they thought of cops snooping around on Facebook and Twitter. One said, ‘If it is going to help cut down on the homicides, then I guess I’m for it,’ while another lamented, ‘I really do think it is an invasion of privacy’.”
What do you think?