Social networking sites changing how police investigate crimes

A status update, a greeting from a friend, a photograph - even a song.

If it's posted on social networking sites, anything from a micro-blog to a poem may give cops a valuable lead in identifying criminals and bringing them to justice.

"Technology is continuing to advance," Hillsborough County sheriff's spokeswoman Debbie Carter said. "Because of that, law enforcement is changing how they do their jobs. We're trying to keep up with the times."

Photographs posted on MySpace led sheriff's detectives to arrest teen brothers in 2006 accused of breaking into an Apollo Beach home. Tevin and Hariel Anderson, ages 14 and 16 at the time, wore distinctive gold chains as they posed for pictures.

A fellow MySpace user saw the photographs of the brothers showing off what looked like his mother's jewelry, detectives said.

This year, a rap song about killing police officers uploaded to MySpace resulted in a Lakeland man getting a two-year prison sentence. Antavio Johnson, 20, who raps under the pseudonym "T.O.," wrote and recorded a song called "Kill Me a Cop," Polk County sheriff's investigators say.

The song contained lyrics about killing two Lakeland police officers and refers to a Polk sheriff's deputy and police dog killed in the line of duty. In July, Johnson pleaded no contest to two counts of corruption by threat of a public servant and was sentenced to two years in prison.

A well-known case in Polk was the beating of cheerleader of Victoria Lindsay on March 30, 2008. The attack was videotaped in retaliation to Lindsay trash-talking with other teen girls on MySpace and the assailants planned to post the video on the Internet, detectives say.

"It's become useful as an investigative tool," Marianne Pasha, Pinellas County sheriff's spokeswoman said. "We do use social networking sites. It's not unusual for law enforcement to do that."

Detectives may be able to glean bits of information from a Facebook profile, but there are other Internet sites that sometimes yield a mother lode of evidence: Craigslist and eBay. Investigators scour those listings looking for items reported stolen.

In April, Tampa police caught a man they say was selling counterfeit tickets to a Metallica concert. Four bogus tickets were advertised for $375 on Craigslist, and detectives tracked down the man selling them on the site after the buyer filed a complaint to police, according to an incident report.

Law enforcement will go to wherever there is information, Pasco County sheriff's spokesman Kevin Doll said. But agencies also use Facebook, MySpace, Twitter and their own homepages to keep residents informed about threats to public safety or major car crashes in the area that are snarling traffic.

Doll said he sends breaking news updates via Twitter, and residents who sign up for a free service on the Pasco County Sheriff's Office Web site can get e-mail or text alerts.

"It's useful to me to get that information out in a way we've never had before," Doll said.

The Pasco, Pinellas and Hillsborough sheriff's offices do not have Facebook or MySpace pages. Those agencies have "public alerts" or similar links on their homepages to inform residents.

The Tampa Police Department has a MySpace page featuring blog entries of cold cases and other cases, along with videos of bank robbery suspects. The Polk County Sheriff's Office has its own profiles on Facebook, MySpace and Twitter, along with a channel on YouTube.

The Polk sheriff's MySpace page was created about 18 months ago, spokeswoman Carrie Eleazer said. Parents and teens were encouraged to befriend the agency to deter sexual predators, Eleazer said. The YouTube channel puts "a personal face to the agency," she said.

The sheriff's office also posts bulletins of suspected bank robbers and burglars on its Facebook page, along with news releases of significant arrests and the results of major investigations.

"We've actually solved a couple of crimes through our Facebook page," Eleazer said.