When Arlington, Tx., police officer Zhivonni McDonnell reported for a shift earlier this year, she was armed with one of the Police Department's newest tools: a smartphone equipped with Twitter. As she accompanied a Citizens on Patrol member that night, McDonnell, the department's social media specialist, tweeted updates on what they were seeing and doing, giving followers a taste of what the volunteer group does, says the Ft. Worth Star-Telegram.
The key, said Chyng-Yang Jang of the University of Texas at Arlington's department of communication, is having personnel who are trained in social media use. "If you're going to use it to just post information, then I don't think it will be too effective," he said. "The real powerful thing is the two-way communication." Cleveland police used it during an Amber Alert in April and received a tip within a few hours that led to the children's rescue. In Pennsylvania, a police department made three arrests in one week off leads generated by social media. Recently, one of Denton's most-wanted misdemeanor fugitives saw his mug shot on the Police Department's Facebook page and turned himself in, hoping to keep his family and friends from finding out.
Officials fear that those who text and email while walking may be putting themselves in danger, says the Wilmington (DE) News-Journal. This spring, a woman walked off a pier and fell into an Indiana river while texting. While texting his boss that he'd be late, a California man nearly walked into a 400-pound black bear on a sidewalk last month. Fort Lee, N.J., officers began issuing $85 fines for "careless walking" this spring.
"When people are talking on cellphones, texting or even listening to music, unfortunately, they're not as aware of what's going on around them," said Newark Police Lt. Mark Farrall, whose department often investigates pedestrian collisions each year, including a fatality April 30. Studies show texting while walking can reduce one's gait and interfere with memory recall of one's destination, causing a pedestrian to veer off a straight path. Stories of distracted walkers tripping into shopping-mall fountains are good for a chuckle, but safety and police officials aren't as quick to laugh. Ohio State University researchers reported that cellphone use by pedestrians led to more than 1,000 emergency-room visits nationwide in 2008.
Read full entry »The news that a Burlington, Ma., mother’s stabbing death was watched by a stunned teen over a live iPad video chat opens new possibilities...
Read full entry »In the Trayvon Martin case, the court of public opinion has moved online, says the Poynter Institute. Last month, attorneys for George Zimmerman, who is facing second-degree murder charges in Martin’s killing, launed a website, Facebook apge, and Twitter account to comment on developments in the case, solicit money for Zimmerman’s defense, and interact with the public.
“[S]ocial media in this day and age cannot be ignored,” wrote Zimmerman attorney Mark O’Mara. “It is now a critical part of presidential politics, it has been part of revolutions in the Middle East, and it is going to be an unavoidable part of high-profile legal cases, just as traditional media has been and continues to be.” California attorney and legal ethicist John Steele and other observers agree that O’Mara’s embrace of social media carries risk. “They just broke through a major wall by saying the way to defend is to start a website and put out news,” said Scott Greenfield, a New York attorney and blogger. "You have to understand the dynamic of the Internet and understand that you’re playing with a monster that will devour you if you screw up." He added, "Anything you put on the Internet is there forever, and no matter what you say, it can be used against you."
Read full entry »If the parents of Trayvon Martin can use social media and the Internet to demand justice, so can George Zimmerman, NPR reports. Attorneys for Zimmerman, who has been charged with second-degree murder in the case, have created a Facebook page, Twitter account, website, and blog to counteract the vitriol heaped on their client. His legal team is communicating directly with supporters and detractors alike of the neighborhood watch volunteer who says he shot the unarmed boy in self-defense.
The Feb. 26 shooting gained national attention partly due to use of Change.org and Twitter by the boy's parents and supporters who pushed for Zimmerman's arrest. "If you are facing serious prison time, you want to load the dice as best you can," says crisis management specialist Eric Dezenhall, who advised attorneys for Michael Jackson in a 2005 molestation trial, in which he was acquitted. "If you know that the case is being publicly debated, if there's any chance of convincing the public that your client is innocent, you're going to try to do it using real facts and plausible narratives."
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Damien Doxley, 34, who served 11 years in Missouri prisons on drugs and weapons charges, clings to values he learned while he was "in the game," says...
Read full entry »A Charlotte man was ecstatic when someone replied to his ad on Craigslist in search of a cheap but dependable car to drive to work. When the apparent seller showed up, as soon as the buyer said he had the money, a second man rushed into the apartment, pointing a handgun. "Give me the money!" the armed man shouted, reports the Charlotte Observer. One suspect pulled the cash out of the man's wallet and grabbed his cellphone. Similar "robbery-by-appointments" have become a growing problem since classified ad websites like Craigslist have become popular online sources to buy or sell anything from pets to electronics and cars.
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Capt. Mike Smathers said police investigate at least one crime a month involving a Craigslist connection. Sometimes, the victim posts something for sale on the website, and a suspect responds with the intention of robbing the seller when they meet. In other cases, a suspect will post an ad and make arrangements to meet a buyer, but instead robs the person of the money they'd planned to use to purchase the item. "They're baiting them with the likelihood of getting a set amount of money," Smathers said. The items involved in Craigslist transactions-gone-bad are usually electronics. When vehicles are used as bait, the suspect may be able to rob someone of thousands of dollars. "That's a lot of money for a street robbery," Smathers said.
Read full entry »"The Fuzz" is back on the beat in Philadelphia, blasting out tweets to his devoted fans with an official seal of approval from the Philadelphia Police Department, says the Philadelphia Daily News. Detective Joseph Murray had more than 600 followers on his @TheFuzz9143 Twitter handle, but had been silent for nearly three months while police administration configured its social-media policy.
Yesterday, Murray was back on Twitter with a new, official handle, @ppdjoemurray, and his followers rejoiced. "I try to talk to people like normal, not cop talk," Murray said. "I don't take myself too seriously. I don't use the word perpetrator." Murray said police administration encouraged him to be himself, and he's even going to be instrumental in training 10 to 15 other officers on Twitter over the next month. "They like what I do and they want to see more of it," he said.
Read full entry »Arkansas' parole board wants to bar convicted sex offenders under parole supervision from using the Internet. The board postponed a vote while the state Attorney General studies whether the idea is constitutional, reports the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. Kim Knoll of the Department of Community Correction said offenders frequently use the Internet to download child pornography and communicate with children.
Under the proposal, all sex offenders would initially be barred from accessing the Internet, but they could request permission to use it for a specific purpose, such as for work. The Association of Paroling Authorities International is surveying states on their policies. Criminal-defense attorney Jeff Rosenzweig of Little Rock called the proposal "ill-considered, particularly since so much of life and commerce and everything else like that has gone to the Internet." In Louisiana, a federal judge ruled unconstitutional a law prohibiting certain types of sex offenders from using social networking sites, chat rooms, and peer-to-peer networks.
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“Civil rights matter,” Mark Byron of Cincinnati said yesterday after Judge Jon Sieve chose to chew him out but not jail him. The Cincinnati Enquirer said Byron, 37, was in court in a case that has drawn international attention because of a court order requiring him to post on his Facebook page an apology to his estranged wife, Elizabeth Byron, or go to jail. The apology was ordered by a magistrate who ruled that Mark Byron’s Facebook posting – and the comments on it made by his Facebook friends – made his ex-wife concerned for her safety.
“I’m sure they didn’t put me in jail (Monday) to keep it from getting bigger,” said Byron, who wore under his sports jacket a T-shirt that read “freespeech.” The case has been commented on around the globe – many, if not most, of the comments critical of the court-ordered apology – because of the free speech issues: a judge writing an apology and forcing Byron to post it on his Facebook page. Judge Jon Sieve saw it differently, saying Byron was using the case – and the media – for his benefit. “There is a certain monetary interest to be served in this media exploitation,” Sieve said. Byron and his estranged wife are going through a contentious divorce and custody fight over their toddler son.
Read full entry »The defense that Jharun Ravi was a "jerky kid" failed miserably with his conviction in the Tyler Clementi suicide case, says the New York Times. Lawyers said the result gave new potential to hate-crime prosecutions for cyberbullying and digital spying because it seemed to repudiate the notion that youth was a defense. “The debate in this case was, Was this a stupid college prank or criminal intimidation? And the jury gave a clear answer,” said Suzanne Goldberg, a gender law expert at Columbia Law School. Lawyers said the verdict would encourage other hate-crime prosecutions involving young defendants. Reluctance by prosecutors in the past had suggested that there were few legal consequences to online prying or to social-media irreverence that became abusive.
The failure of the jerky-kid defense is likely to change the legal landscape, the Times said, by showing that jurors can conclude that young people who are sophisticated enough to spy on, insult, and embarrass one another electronically are sophisticated enough to be held accountable. The verdict showed that the notion of innocent youth as a shield to culpability might not hold as much sway as it once did in court, said former federal prosecutor Marcellus McRae: “Jurors will say their kid or kids they know are more sophisticated than that. For jurors, it doesn’t pass the common-sense test.”
Read full entry »In West and Southwest Philadelphia, sounds of sirens or gunfire send some citizens rushing to a laptop or smartphone, for a direct line to the Fuzz, says the Philadelphia Inquirer. The Fuzz is police detective Joseph Murray, 32, who for two years has used his Twitter account - @TheFuzz9143 - to blast crime-fighting updates. Murray, a third-generation police officer, has used the social-media tool to cultivate a dialogue with those he protects and serves.
Murray tells his 700 followers where and when crimes are happening, very often crimes that don't make the evening news. He's ahead of the digital curve in policing - perhaps a little too far ahead. His superiors asked him to suspend tweeting while they develop departmentwide policies and training - a directive Murray does not question. His approach may serve as a road map. Murray has been off-line recently, which put a scare into his loyal followers. In January, a new police mandate required officers to get departmental permission before using their official titles on social-media sites.
Read full entry »Dharun Ravi was found guilty in New Jersey of bias intimidation by using a webcam to spy remotely on an intimate tryst between Rutgers University roommate...
Read full entry »The sex industry is moving from the streets to computer screens, and Texas authorities say their efforts to enforce the law and find and protect victims are hampered by the shift, reports the Austin American-Statesman. Detectives have made strides to fight what they describe as a modern-day form of slavery by enhancing their collaboration across jurisdictions and their use of tools on the Web, where victims are easier to hide, predators harder to catch, and evidence tougher and more time-consuming to gather.
Authorities said offline efforts are just as important, such as training officers, emergency responders and residents on how to detect potential sex trafficking circles in their own communities. At its core, social workers and detectives say that the universal model for one of the world's oldest professions remains much the same: men capitalizing on young women. The sex trade no longer is mostly girls hanging around dark city corners looking for business. It is a multibillion-dollar enterprise that has expanded to hundreds of thousands of women advertising — or being forced to advertise — their services on countless online classified ads, teen dating and social networking sites.
Read full entry »While juror misbehavior is nothing new, social media have made it extremely easy—and tempting—to break the rules, and lawyers are increasingly using that as a reason for appeals, legal experts tell the Wall Street Journal. While most judges frown upon jurors' using their smartphones while sitting in the jury box, jurors typically have full access to social media outside the courtroom. The challenge for courts is enforcing social-media bans during trials—which can last for weeks—at a time when authorities can't even stop some people from risking their lives by sending text messages while driving.
Two-thirds of adult Internet users say they use social-networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter, says the Pew Research Center. Thaddeus Hoffmeister, who researches juries at the University of Dayton School of Law, said courts need to acknowledge that "some people just can't stop" using social media. "You have to start treating jurors less like children," he said. "Jurors should be equal partners in the courtroom—tell them why they can't do things." A challenge for courts is that use of social media is difficult to detect. Last year, 79 percent of judges who responded to a survey question by the Federal Judicial Center said they had no way of knowing whether jurors had violated a social-media ban. Experts say someone would need to have access to a juror's postings and flag it to the court.
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