Police are now using social networking sites Twitter and YouTube to help find criminals.
Last week police uploaded a video of an attack on a bus to Twitter users, in order to help identify the people involved. A prior video of an assault was also posted recently, and has become one of the top 50 watched videos in Australia.
“We’ve established our own YouTube channel and the hit rate has gone through the roof,” New South Wales Police public affairs director Strath Gordon told News.com.au.
“We are using Tweetpics to seek assistance finding missing persons or people wanted over particular crimes.”
“Today, we tweeted a guy wanted over a fraud matter.”
Gordon also said the internet allowed “powerful” communication with the public, and that the NSW Police had doubled its audience over the past year.
Patrick Stafford is a freelance journalist and a former deputy editor of SmartCompany.
