{"id":2740,"date":"2015-04-03T12:58:16","date_gmt":"2015-04-03T16:58:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jolt.richmond.edu\/?p=2740"},"modified":"2019-03-08T19:52:23","modified_gmt":"2019-03-09T00:52:23","slug":"blog-wanted-on-warrantwednesday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/jolt\/2015\/04\/03\/blog-wanted-on-warrantwednesday\/","title":{"rendered":"Blog: #Wanted on #WarrantWednesday"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Patty_Hearst_FBI_poster\"<\/a>By: Milena Radovic, Associate Manuscripts Editor<\/p>\n

In March 2015, Butler County Sheriff\u2019s Office in Ohio posted a series of pictures and brief criminal history of Andrew Marcum on its Facebook page.[1]<\/a>\u00a0 The Sheriff\u2019s Office requested that the public help in locating Mr. Marcum[2]<\/a> because he was wanted for \u201cburglary, kidnapping, domestic violence and criminal endangering.\u201d[3]<\/a>\u00a0 Surprisingly, Mr. Marcum commented on the post and stated, \u201cI ain’t tripping half of them don’t even know me.\u201d[4]<\/a>\u00a0 Subsequently, the Sheriff\u2019s Office responded with \u201cIf you could stop by the Sheriff\u2019s Office, that\u2019d be great,\u201d[5]<\/a> and then stated, \u201cHey, it doesn\u2019t hurt to ask.\u201d[6]<\/a>\u00a0 On Twitter, the Sheriff Richard K. Jones posted a picture of a jail cell with the caption \u201cHey Andrew Marcum we’ve got your room ready…\u201d[7]<\/a>\u00a0 The following day the Sheriff\u2019s Office arrested Mr. Marcum.[8]<\/a><\/p>\n

Posts like the one by Butler County Sheriff\u2019s Office are not uncommon. More and more police stations are utilizing social media websites, like Facebook and Twitter to catch criminals and request tips.[9]<\/a>\u00a0 These social media posts are essentially \u201celectronic versions of traditional wanted posters,\u201d and often include \u201ca photo, description of the individual and crime, and a contact number for tips.\u201d[10]<\/a>\u00a0 In order to protect the anonymity of tipsters and informants, law enforcement departments encourage the community to provide information through phone calls or emails and not directly through comments.[11]<\/a><\/p>\n

In New York, Illinois, Colorado, and even Canada, police departments use \u201c#warrantwednesday\u201d on social media to catch criminals, while Florida and Indiana utilize \u201cTurn \u2019em in Tuesday.\u201d[12]<\/a>\u00a0 In 2014, New York State Police arrested fifteen as a result of #warrantwednesday posts and in total, arrested twenty-nine people as a result of tips received through social media. \u00a0According to Darcy Wells of the New York State Police, there is a spike in Facebook page activity on Warrant Wednesdays, and \u201cTwitter town halls have increased the agency\u2019s Twitter followers\u2014which, ultimately, can help solve crimes and promote public safety.[13]<\/a><\/p>\n

According to a study by LexisNexis, law enforcement \u201cincreasingly [rely] on social media tools to prevent crime, accelerate case closures and develop a dialogue with the public.\u201d[14]<\/a>\u00a0 Although it is not rare for police to use social media to catch criminals, this method seems to be far less controversial. \u00a0In the past, police departments have faced criticism for using Facebook to catch criminals by creating fake profiles and gaining access to private information through a user\u2019s Facebook friends.[15]<\/a>\u00a0 Ultimately, this method may be more effective in creating goodwill and promoting cooperation between citizens and the police.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

[1]<\/a>Tracy Bloom, Wanted Man Arrested in Ohio After Responding to Sheriff\u2019s Facebook Post About Him<\/em>, KTLA5 (Mar. 4, 2015, 8:55 AM), http:\/\/ktla.com\/2015\/03\/04\/wanted-man-arrested-in-ohio-after-responding-to-sheriffs-facebook-post-about-him\/<\/p>\n

[2]<\/a> Bloom, supra<\/em> note 1.<\/p>\n

[3]<\/a> Faith, Karimi, Ohio fugitive nabbed after taunting authorities on Facebook, CNN, http:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2015\/03\/05\/us\/ohio-facebook-post-arrest\/ (last updated Mar. 5, 2015, 9:46 AM).<\/p>\n

[4]<\/a> Bloom, supra<\/em> note 1; see also <\/em>Karimi, supra <\/em>note 3.<\/p>\n

[5]<\/a> Bloom, supra<\/em> note 1; see also <\/em>Karimi, supra <\/em>note 3.<\/p>\n

[6]<\/a> Bloom, supra<\/em> note 1.<\/p>\n

[7]<\/a> Bloom, supra<\/em> note 1; see also <\/em>Karimi, supra <\/em>note 3.<\/p>\n

[8]<\/a> Bloom, supra<\/em> note 1; see also <\/em>Karimi, supra <\/em>note 3.<\/p>\n

[9]<\/a> See <\/em>Judy Sutton Taylor, #WarrantWednesdays: Law enforcement jumps on a social media trend to help find criminals<\/em>, ABA Journal, Mar. 2015, at 9, available at <\/em> http:\/\/www.abajournal.com\/magazine\/article\/law_enforcement_jumps_on_warrantwednesdays_trend_to_help_find_criminals\/?utm_source=maestro&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=tech_monthly (the title of the online version is Law enforcement jumps on #WarrantWednesdays trend to help find criminals<\/em>).<\/p>\n

[10]<\/a> Taylor, supra <\/em>note 9, at 9.<\/p>\n

[11]<\/a> See <\/em>Taylor, supra <\/em>note 9, at 9\u201310.<\/p>\n

[12]<\/a> See <\/em>Taylor, supra <\/em>note 9, at 10.<\/p>\n

[13]<\/a> Taylor, supra <\/em>note 9, at 9\u201310.<\/p>\n

[14]<\/a> Lexis Nexis, Social Media Use in Law Enforcement:Crime prevention and investigative activities continue to drive usage 3 (2014), available at <\/em>http:\/\/www.lexisnexis.com\/risk\/downloads\/whitepaper\/2014-social-media-use-in-law-enforcement.pdf.<\/p>\n

[15]<\/a> See <\/em>Heather Kelly, Police embrace social media as crime-fighting tool<\/em>, Facebook, CNN, http:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2012\/08\/30\/tech\/social-media\/fighting-crime-social-media\/ (last updated Aug. 30, 2012, 5:23 PM).<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By: Milena Radovic, Associate Manuscripts Editor In March 2015, Butler County Sheriff\u2019s Office in Ohio posted a series of pictures and brief criminal history of Andrew Marcum on its Facebook page.[1]\u00a0 The Sheriff\u2019s Office requested that the public help in locating Mr. Marcum[2] because he was wanted for \u201cburglary, kidnapping, domestic violence and criminal endangering.\u201d[3]\u00a0 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4287,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[51366],"tags":[795],"class_list":["post-2740","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog-post","tag-blog"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paMHOZ-Ic","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/jolt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2740","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/jolt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/jolt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/jolt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4287"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/jolt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2740"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/jolt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2740\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/jolt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2740"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/jolt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2740"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/jolt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2740"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}