[USAToday]Cops using YouTube to find criminals

[Vation]

By the time police in Suffolk, Va., got to the scene of a large street fight on the afternoon of Dec. 14, there wasn't much to see.

Those involved in the fight had scattered, and witnesses were not talking, police spokeswoman Debbie George said.

Days later, George said, investigators got a break — via YouTube. Cellphone videos of the fight had been posted on the video-sharing website.

"The video itself was very clear," George said. Police and school resource officers were able to pick out the suspects. Seven people identified in the video are awaiting trial.

YouTube has no way of knowing how often police tap into its videos to make arrests, company spokesman Scott Rubin said, but police across the country say they are increasingly using YouTube and other online social networks to root out criminals.

"Technology has revolutionized law enforcement in many ways," said Jack Rinchich, president of the National Association of Chiefs of Police. "Sometimes people are pretty liberal about what they put on (social networking sites)," he said.(...)

source and further reading:
Cops using YouTube to find criminals - USATODAY.com

[slikrapid]

looks like they are desperate for some quality detectives, but this choice of evidence has a flipside: it means citizens will be able to use the same methods/evidence to find cops that are abusing/overstepping their bounds