When Anne Arundel County police announced that they had arrested a man for snatching a pocketbook in a mall parking lot, five people gave them a thumbs-up. Others wrote congratulatory messages, including "Hooray for the Good Guys!!" One woman hoped police would have similar luck catching the man who nabbed her sister's purse.
These concerned citizens shared their thoughts with the police not in letters or at a town hall meeting but on the department's Facebook page.
Police agencies around the world - including in Anne Arundel and Baltimore counties and Baltimore City - are using online social media to publicize murders, road closures and arrests or collect tips and comment. Citizens are responding, rattling off opinions with rare candor.
"Part of our crime-fighting plan is community engagement," said Baltimore City police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi, who recently created the department's Twitter page. "These social networking sites are a great tool to have a community meeting without actually going to a meeting. I also want it to be a tool where people can get information in real time."
In the past few months, dozens of police departments have started pages on Twitter, a Web site that allows users to post short updates or "tweets," that can be read online or sent to cell phones. Others have joined Facebook, a site that has quickly grown from a playground for college students to a valuable networking tool.
Baltimore County police created a channel on YouTube last month with videos of crime-prevention tips. The Philadelphia police posted footage of their motorcycle stunt team and funeral information for a fallen officer on their Facebook page. Even the FBI has gotten into the game, tweeting wanted posters and fraud alerts on Twitter.
While using these sites offers police unprecedented access to the public, experts say it also raises questions, including: What happens when the men in blue show up on a Web page where people virtually "poke" friends and "throw sheep"?
Zeynep Tufekci, a professor at the University Maryland Baltimore County who studies social networking, said "it's kind of creepy" for authorities to be on areas of the Internet normally used for exchanges between friends.
"These sites assume a relationship of equals, they have always been places where you keep in touch with and stay engaged with your friends and acquaintances," Tufekci said. "This is sort of like inviting police in uniform to your party."
