Will police respond to social media posts admittng to/boasting about criminal acts?

[griffin1977]

@Asuka

In England a large organized crime ring was brought down a decade ago because one of the supposedly poor participants showed himself on Facebook holding a giant wad of bills when the police already suspected him for money laundering.

This also happens a lot.

More dubiously the police in US can use the RICO laws to prosecute people who posted on social media with gang members, even if they didn’t post about any criminal acts.

Prosecutors Overreach in RICO Gang Arrests

[Wesley_Clark]

@Asuka

In England a large organized crime ring was brought down a decade ago because one of the supposedly poor participants showed himself on Facebook holding a giant wad of bills when the police already suspected him for money laundering.

Was it thisguy?

[nearwildheaven]

@HeyHomie

I’ve read more than once of some dumbass posting pictures of their bongs, dank weed, blunts, and shake, on FB, and then the cops coming calling. It happens.

I’ve always been surprised at what people will post on Facebook, because they think only their FBFs will see it. Sorry, doesn’t work that way.

About police acting on social media posts: When I lived in my old town, the parks department started preparing the swimming pools for the public, and discovered that someone had dumped enough vegetable oil on the slide to ruin the finish, and it would have to be replaced. You guessed it - one of the doofuses who did it went on Facebook and bragged that he and (names his collaborators) were the ones who did it. Because they were all 17 or 18 years old and had never been in trouble before, they were ordered to pay restitution for the cost of replacing the slide (about $30,000 split 5 or 6 ways) and the charges would be expunged if they did so within XYZ amount of time.

I have a relative who had surgery last week, and mentioned that she was on Percocet and tramadol. I PM’ed her and told her that she might want to delete or edit that post, and why, and she replied that she had her wall set to “friends only” so it wouldn’t be a problem. :smack: I sure hope it isn’t, in the long run.

[aceplace57]

I watch the First 48 on A&E. Features homicide detectives in various US cities.

They often use Facebook to find known associates of their main suspect.

For example, a robbery/shooting at a gas station.
Surveillance video shows 4 male suspects in hoodies, riding in a blue Honda Accord.

Informats say Little Jay Jay was involved. The detective searchs nicknames and find he’s Jay Hawkins.

Opens his Facebook page. Usually accompanied by photos of the suspect posing with guns,money, and gold jewelry. Hey, there’s a Instagram post of blue Honda Accord and the license tag. It’s registered to Simone Hawkins.

There’s photos of Little Jay Jay’s posse. They resemble the other suspects in the surveillance video. The men are linked as Facebook friends. There’s more photos of guns and bling.

Before long they’re all being interviewed and arrests made.

It’s amazing how foolishly criminals lay out their entire lives on social media.

I’ve seen a lot of murders solved by detectives on social media. Some departments even have someone assigned that specializes in researching it.

[LTU2]

@doreen

There’s a reason nolo.com says “most states”. In some states, a police officer can indeed arrest someone for an misdemeanor that was not committed in his or her presence.
My state is one of them- it’s one of the differences between police officers and peace officers

Atwater v. Lago Vista, has an Appendix of such at the end of the case, of course one would have to check if it is current law as back then.

[LTU2]

@Chronos

Wouldn’t a report from someone else (especially from a professional at spotting drunkenness, like a bartender, or from the person themself) be enough for the standard of probable cause required to pull a car over? Is it actually in the law that the police officer has to personally witness the probable cause?

Witnessing for an arrest and witnessing the element of reasonable suspicion for a traffic stop can be the same, but do not have to be the same.

Depends on where you are, even if the law requires an officer witness the crime for a warrantless misdemeanor arrest, what is known as the “Fellow Officer” Rule can permit an arrest on the PC of another officer.