While Web 2.0 technologies like interactive maps, YouTube, and social media greatly increase our ability to communicate and share information with each other across the globe, it also gives law enforcement and the courts more fodder for convicting offenders.
Drunk Facebook Photos
Case in point: 17-year-old Ashley Sullivan, while drunk, crashed a can into a brick pillar in a small Connecticut town, killing her boyfriend in the passenger seat. Shortly after, she posted drunken pictures of herself on Facebook from a trip that took place a month after the crash. As a result, the judge at her trial refused to try her as a minor and sentenced her to jail time instead of a lesser punishment. (source)
A less dramatic story comes from Vancouver, where a Woman, her daughter, and a tree removal company owner are charged with breaking a city ordinance of removing trees without a permit when a Google StreetView photo surfaced showing the stumps of trees in the woman’s yard, the company truck parked nearby. (See photo, source)
Facebook from Prison
Colin Gunn
Lastly, a British gangster has been using Facebook to run his criminal empire from prison. Colin Gunn, convicted of ordering the execution of an elderly couple, has been using Facebook for the last 2 months both to taunt his enemies and to continue his criminal activities. It is believed that prison officials let Gunn post the site almost daily for fear of running into human rights violations if they did not. The site has now been shut down. (source)
Do you have other stories of criminals or law enforcement using Web 2.o technology? Leave it in the comments section.
James Gunter is the editor of The Crime Map and the director of social media for CrimeReports.com.
Get on the National Crime Map at CrimeReports.com
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