Yes, you!
The one about to send out a tweet looking for weed, like @rosa_sparkz did on July 22, 2015.
Step away from the keyboard! This warning is for you.
The police are monitoring social media sites, including twitter. Your tweet will be found just like the aforementioned person's tweet was found. She received a reply from @PBCountySheriff just over an hour after her initial tweet asking where they should meet her.
Police departments all over North America are spending time online because that's where we are. It's where we talk to each other, post about where we are going, what we are doing, and who we are with. We post photos and engage in conversations. We sometimes look for products and services too. The police are realizing that social media is a great tool to not only solve crimes, but also learn about a crime before it even takes place.
They couldn't do this without people oversharing online though. That is why I am warning you to back away. Don't post about your crimes or publicly plot to engage in criminal activity.
Just look at an unidentified 16 year old who decided to pull a prank at a public library by flooding the toilets, causing the library to be closed for 5 months from over $200,000 worth of damage, and then telling his friend about it on Facebook. He tried to deny it until police showed him the messages he had written on Facebook as proof.
Then there was a woman who thought that live streaming herself on Periscope while driving impaired with her children in the car was a good idea. One of her followers notified police who were able to track her down by following her live stream.
Sometimes though, it's not even that people post about the crime or intent to commit a crime. Sometimes it's simply that people cannot leave social media alone long enough! That's what happened to Nick Wig in July 2014. He entered a home when the family wasn't there and stole a few things. Before leaving he logged into Facebook on their computer and was easily identified due to his name and face being plastered on their computer screen. That's right, he didn't even remember to log out before leaving!
So again I tell you, be warned, the police are monitoring social media sites looking for you. So don't post about your desire to buy illegal drugs, or brag about how great a driver you are after 10 beers, 5 shots of rum, and a Red Bull. And if you ever break into someone's house and rob them, don't leave your Facebook page wide open on their computer screen.
When it comes to committing crimes, lets make the police work for the evidence they need. Here are five ways we can make crime 'old school' again.
1. Lets go back to police needing to interrogate people for confessions rather than reading them on social media.
2. Lets go back to police relying on a sketch artist's drawing to help identify suspects rather than leaving photographic evidence of our identity from our Facebook pages.
3. Let's go back to finding drugs in dark alleyways rather than broadcasting our addictions on social media for police to openly see.
4. Let's go back to pretending to be sober when driving under the influence until getting caught by a ride program or stuck in a tree, rather than live stream the experience so police can track us down before we smash into the tree.
5. Let's go back to he said she said rather than give civilians the evidence they need to rat us out to the police.
I hope you will take my advice and think before you post. Remember everything you post, tweet, share, comment, or like, just might be used against you. Keep your crimes offline.
This PSA has been brought to you as my scholarship application for: https://www.haywoodhunt.ca I hope you enjoyed my blog.
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