Oh Look, Some Police Do Know How To Use Craigslist As A Tool
from the yet-again dept
We keep hearing stories of law enforcement officials, such as Sheriff Thomas Dart of Cook County Illinois, trying to blame Craigslist for the actions of its users, rather than recognizing that Craigslist can be a great tool for actually monitoring and tracking down crime. Some are realizing this, and Eric Goldman point us to the latest example of this. Police in Palo Alto, California (right in the heart of Silicon Valley, so it's a good sign that they get this), used a Craigslist ad to help track down a bicycle thief. This is, obviously, a rather simple example, but it does make you wonder why more law enforcement agencies don't regularly do similar things. It has to be better than suing (or threatening to sue) Craigslist for the activities of its users.Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
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Filed Under: crime, law enforcement, palo alto
Companies: craigslist
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Law enforcement
I have a friend who is an Indiana policeman, and part of his job is to catch pedophiles who use Craigslist to troll for underage girls. He's never gone after Craigslist itself, and his usual modus operandi is to post on Craigslist acting as an underage girl, in order to get pedophiles to respond to the ad and thus put them in jail.
It seems like the whole anti-Craigslist thing is kind of an anomaly in law enforcement circles. I suspect that most law enforcement officials can't publicly come out against the anti-Craigslist sentiment simply because they have a reputation to uphold in the community at large.
I don't think most beat cops are concerned about shutting down websites. Hopefully this means that the whole thing will blow over, or if not, just be ignored.
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Re:
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Keep in Mind...
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The police didn't use Craigslist
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Re: The police didn't use Craigslist
That wouldn't be a bad headline, but I think a better one would be:
"Bike Owner Does Police Force's Job For Them, Demands Several Donuts and Free Food At Local Eatery"
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Re: The police didn't use Craigslist
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Necessitatibus non nostrum delectus amet vero qui saepe similique exercitation voluptas fugit qui accusantium cum iure voluptatum exercitationem veniam
Quisquam atque maxime cupiditate sequi eum et do eaque ab aut ut autem
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