NYPD Creating A Social Media Division

Chances are Twitter and Facebook aren’t the first places you think of when it comes to tracking down criminals. Recognizing that social media plays a key role in our society today, the NYPD has formed a new social media unit to help find criminals based on their online activity.

The new unit will track activity on MySpace, Twitter, and Facebook to try and get the inside scoop on things like troublesome parties, gang activity, or other criminal activity. The hope would be that some of those issues could be stopped before they happen.

According to the NYPD, social media has been key in solving several crimes in the past, where criminals have bragged about committing the crimes online, or have had online fights that have turned into real-world bloodshed.

Social media also played a part in the recent riots in London, with people using the sites to organize as well as to notify police where riots were so they could be stopped.

What do you think about the police having a social media unit? Is it a good idea?

[via NY Daily News]

Teen arrested after inciting riots using BlackBerry Messenger

A teenage girl was arrested yesterday, charged with inciting riots via RIM’s favourite messaging service, BlackBerry Messenger. She is said to have sent a BBM message encouraging others from her home town of Clacton, Essex to copy the rioting and looting that was occuring in London, an offence under the Serious Crime Act 2007.

Earlier this week we reported that RIM promised to help in any way they could to aide in finding the people behind the riots. Does this mean that RIM has made their data available to the UK government? Yesterday the UK Prime Minister, David Cameron said that he would be in talks with RIM, Facebook and Twitter to look at ways they could prevent rioters and looters communicating through these services to organise criminal activities, stating “We are working with the police, the intelligence services and industry to look at whether it would be right to stop people communicating via these websites and services when we know they are plotting violence, disorder and criminality” It is the wish of the UK government to stop these services during periods of unrest. MP David Lammy of Tottenham, where the riots started, made his plea of shutting down the BBM service after the first night of riots, with a lot of other MP’s agreeing.

We’ve mentioned before that BlackBerry is very popular among teenagers, so it comes as little surprise that BBM would be used to communicate. But are the UK government right in requesting these services be stopped? And should RIM have given in to these demands?

Source: The Telegraph

Via:cb

Official BlackBerry Blog hacked – Group responds to official RIM statement on London riots

Earlier this morning the group TeaMp0isoN hacked their way into the official BlackBerry Blog. Just yesterday, authorities in London had asked RIM for help given the role BBM has played in the riots taking place. RIM put out an official statement in regard to BBM and the riots, to which the hackers had this to say: