Mashable - The Social Media Guide - Latest Comments in Boston Police Using Twitter and Facebook to Track Down Bike Thieves

Re: Boston Police Using Twitter and Facebook to Track Down Bike Thieves

TheReason — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 20:34:15 -0000

I just had my bike stolen 2 days ago. Twitter, Facebook, and social networks have done absolute shit for me retrieving my bike. In fact my local police department (atlantic city, NJ) told me it is not serious enough to be wasting their time calling 911.
So... this is bullshit. .... yeah... lets spend tax dollars so police can play on social networks to potentially find info leading to maybe seeing a bike that may look similar to the one stolen.
I remember the days when the police patrolled the streets for suspicious activity.. and they would write a police report, instead of convince the victim a police report isn't needed.
What a crock of shit.

Re: Boston Police Using Twitter and Facebook to Track Down Bike Thieves

Lewis — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 17:36:01 -0000

Only if we had Twitter and Facebook back in 1995 when my brand new Huffy Redline was stolen! It is awesome to see Boston PD use social media to combat these thieves. Actually it seems most most PDs are on Twitter these days giving valuable information before it hits the nightly news. Any who, as a podcaster I was wondering if anyone knows of any police departments doing podcasts. I found one up in Canada - http://www.saanichpolice.ca...

God I loved that Huffy!

Re: Boston Police Using Twitter and Facebook to Track Down Bike Thieves

JackBresler — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 14:47:13 -0000

This is great. Initiatives like this are the tip of the iceberg in improved peer to peer communication that we can expect from twitter and the like.

Re: Boston Police Using Twitter and Facebook to Track Down Bike Thieves

Gregory Ferenstein — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 18:46:30 -0000

Hizaa! That's awesome. Twitter as a government tool is amazing. There should be some kind of award for social media innovation in government

http://su.pr/1MQCyb

Re: Boston Police Using Twitter and Facebook to Track Down Bike Thieves

Chris Jacobson — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 14:54:12 -0000

The title is a bit misleading... bike thieves aren't being tracked down... only the bicycles they steal are.

Re: Boston Police Using Twitter and Facebook to Track Down Bike Thieves

James Lucas — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 14:47:08 -0000

That's great that the police are using social media for crime fighting, but how sad is it that there are so many bike thefts that they have to implement a whole new system for it?

Re: Boston Police Using Twitter and Facebook to Track Down Bike Thieves

Sheila@The Re Agency — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 10:26:02 -0000

This is a hilarious and surprisingly useful way to use Social Media.

It reiterates the versatility of social networking.

Re: Boston Police Using Twitter and Facebook to Track Down Bike Thieves

jasperblake — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 10:10:02 -0000

Good to see the police making use of social media. I remember being at a business networking meeting where the local community police officer gave a talk. I thought at the time how useful a blog would be to them, perhaps in partnership with local Block Watch groups, where not only could they keep their particular communities up to date with alerts for their area, but they could also use it it as a great tool for helping their community get to know them. I tried to arrange to meet the said officer to explain my idea but he never got back to me. It seems that government institutions tend to be last adopters of these kind of initiatives, but perhaps the Boston force might serve as an example to others.

Re: Boston Police Using Twitter and Facebook to Track Down Bike Thieves

Jeff — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 09:17:05 -0000

It's great to know that law enforcement organizations traditionally thought of being stodgy and old are out there looking for innovative ways to protect the people. Empowering people to help is certainly one way to make them feel safer and engaged in the community. Cool stuff, go Boston!

Jeff
www.techbuoy.com

Re: Boston Police Using Twitter and Facebook to Track Down Bike Thieves

SEO Sean — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 19:58:31 -0000

I can testify that social media and networking are a pretty valuable resource for police. My friend was arrested and prosecuted for a bar fight over 6 months after it happened. How did they find him? Myspace which led them to Twitter which led them to his personal site which so happened to have his address....lol

Re: Boston Police Using Twitter and Facebook to Track Down Bike Thieves

I spotted a stolen bike in Portland last month & tweeted it, the result: Bike Portland started a Twitter acct for stolen bikes so it doesn't clutter their account. http://twitter.com/stolenbi...

Re: Boston Police Using Twitter and Facebook to Track Down Bike Thieves

Naturalwealth — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 18:47:30 -0000

The FBI has been using myspace for a while.....