Cop snares college pals in own Web:
This is a story about a cop who really wanted to get his man…
On a typical summer night out, a group of college friends went bar-hopping at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Then one of them committed a fairly typical college crime, urinating in a bush in front of a fraternity house. That’s when things started to get strange.
Marc Chiles, 22, who couldn’t wait until he got to the next bar, got away before a police officer could catch him. Adam Gartner, 22, told the officer he didn’t know the name of the guy who had zipped up and zipped away.
Just then, Gartner’s cell phone rang. The officer got on the phone, began talking to the person who called, and got Chiles’ name from the caller, according to the friends.
Then the officer went to Facebook.com, a Web site where students can post profiles and leave messages for one another. Not only did Facebook help him identify Chiles, it also showed that Chiles and
Gartner listed each other as friends, suggesting Gartner had lied to police.Chiles’ ticket for public urination: $145. Gartner’s ticket for obstructing justice: $195.
That is too funny but of course
we have to have someone complaining about police…
Several legal observers said they thought the U. of I. police reaction was over the top.
“This seemingly is a gross overreaction and very poor judgment rendered by the campus police,” said Sheldon Steinbach, general counsel of the Washington-based American Council on Education. “To use limited police and security resources to apprehend and then prosecute minor violations is hardly a good use of resources.”
Jeremy Grose, an attorney for U. of I.’s Student Legal Service, said he expects to see more students in legal trouble related to their Web site postings.
“It’s hard to believe that police would have nothing better to do than get online and scan through Facebook,” he said. “I am wondering if the next step will be combing through and trying to find crimes admitted to online.”
First of all lighten up Francis. Secondly if you don’t want to get fined then don’t break the law. I commend the officer for having such ingenuity.
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It seems that Grose is a little behind the times. Cops are already scanning the networking sites and finding where crimes have been committed.