Who Needs Informants When There is Facebook?

This story describes NYPD’s use of social media, likeFacebook, to build cases against youthful offenders.  The strategy is surprisingly successful,according to the article, because “an online persona is a necessary componentof social life for the young crew members.”

The part that grabbed my attention is:  “Facebook, officers like to say now, is themost reliable informer” – supporting my prognostication in this article — ApplyingCrawford’s Confrontation Right in a Digital Age, 45 Tex. Tech. L.Rev. 33 (2012)– that “Prosecutors of the future may have placards in their office that read, ‘Whoneeds informants, when there is Facebook?’”

– JB