Police Use MySpace Profiles to ID 6 Rape and Robbery Suspects

[mandy]

Detectives used profiles posted on the MySpace social networking website to identify six suspects in a rape and robbery that began when a party turned violent, leaving blood "in almost every room of the house," officials said.

Six men were arrested in connection with the Feb. 23 rampage, and a seventh suspect was being sought, Detective Ali Bartley said Friday. The victim, whose name was withheld, became acquainted with the suspects through MySpace, authorities said...

full article: http://www.wired.com/news/wireservice/0,...=rss.index

EDIT: Thread title changed to "Surfing MySpace.com helps cops crack the case" from "Police Use MySpace Profiles to ID 6 Rape and Robbery Suspects" by Kristijntje on 17.4.06

[Kristijntje]

A related article:

Meet the point-and-click police. A growing number of ordinary officers are working a new beat, turning to MySpace—an online network of individuals linked through personalized home pages—to collect clues and crack offline cases. Communication between cops and the two-year-old company has surged this year, with MySpace now contributing to about 150 investigations a month, according to Jason Feffer, its vice president for operations. That's due in large part to the site's size and substance. A searchable, public scrapbook of images, affiliations and written exchanges, it offers detectives raw data on 70 million potential suspects, witnesses or victims...

full article: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12335363/site/newsweek/