Google Used to ID Hit-And-Run Victim 134
jafiwam writes "Google has been used (according to CNN) to help identify a hit-and-run victim from 1993. Detective Pat Ditter used Google to identify victim David Glen Lewis, 39 who died after being hit by a car while out of town. An image involving a fairly unique pair of glasses was found on the Texas Department of Public Safety web site, and a similar image on the Doe Network (involved in unsolved cases). This was after Det. Ditter began working on unsolved cases utilizing Google as a tool in that process. Makes you wonder how it took law enforcement that long to think of this. Process servers, employers and significant others already use Google for theses purposes... why not cops?"
Re:i'm glad (Score:3, Insightful)
I'm not (Score:3, Insightful)
The second is that Google is a private corporation and there is no guarantee that google does not the display search results that it wants displayed instead of the real ones. Just too much power in Google's hands in my mind.
Re:Soon you will see - "CSI effect" (Score:3, Insightful)
Also interesting, there is a phenomenon called the "CSI effect" referring to jurors expecting capabilities similar to the tv series in real-life forensic investigations...
Re:They do use Google... (Score:5, Insightful)
Many cases get shelved not because they are unsolvable but because there is too much other low hanging fruit that can more easily be addressed first. To get the most bang for the taxpayer dollar, easy cases get solved first and if there is time, the tough ones that take more time are addressed. Too often because of resource limitations, the more difficult cases are never addressed.
sheesh (Score:3, Insightful)
Police demographic (Score:4, Insightful)
This is of little surprise to me.
If we look at the demographic that is the police, then the only saving grace is that they would probably contain a small percentage of "forward thinkers" - maybe 2-5% of their number, just as in most organisations.
Police officers often do not hold any formal qualification outside of high school, or their own training instutions.
Fundamentaly, police in the field need the ability to arrest, tackle, and subdue violent offenders. The fact is, they need special...uh...abilities, to do this. Not the ability to "think outside the square".
Later in their career they will graduate to perhaps detective. They then utilize past experiance and gain new initiative.
They would now have the opportunity and freedom(in work) to move beyond the text book.
There must be so many "old schoolers" in the police, where challenging tried and true process's requires seniority, an innovative bent, and the ability to say no to the old school.
Re:New use (Score:3, Insightful)
Adjust for actual location/district/beat, of course.
Re:I call this google stalking ... (Score:1, Insightful)
"Male looking for other males for discreet, private meetings - into play, but nothing too rough"
Just curious - would you have held it against him if his email had come up on a straight dating site? That is, would you still have blackmailed him if he had been searching for female company?
Google is a search engine people (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:I call this google stalking ... (Score:1, Insightful)
Right now, it makes it sound as though you were in cahoots with that auction scammer, and that you blackmail your customers
Now, I know that *probably* wasn't your intent, and I know better than to judge a story from only one side of it, but... well, I usually post as though someone were looking over my shoulder... (Hi ECHELON! How's the fnord?)
Re:They do use Google... (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:I'm not (Score:3, Insightful)
In this case, if you'd bothered to read the article, the detective turned to google after the standard means came up empty. Note the dates -- this guy had been missing for eleven years. I've worked in law enforcement....sometimes you don't always find the information you need in police databases. They're old systems, often difficult to use (even for a geek like me). And sharing of data amongst localities isn't always the best. It took years to get the NCIC established so that officers can check for outstanding warrants nationwide. Things like missing persons data isn't as centralized.
dating the archive (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:I call this google stalking ... (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:They do use Google... (Score:3, Insightful)
Speeding is a real crime. If you're travelling at 35mph then an increase of 5mph (14.3%) will increase your braking distance by 30%. The distance travelled during your reaction time is also increased by 14% however the reaction and braking distances are in different scales so cannot be simply added together. At any rate, the combined stopping distance at 40mph is something in excess of 30% more than at 35mph. That could easily mean the difference between life and death.
The Great Lie of motoring is that 5mph isn't a big deal. It's not a real crime. Surely driver attention, skill level, quality of car, surface conditions, they all outweigh the dangers of speeding. I'm a better driver than everybody else; I should be allowed to speed. Cops should be arresting those Real Criminals instead of poor little old me when I was only exceeding the speed limit by 5mph in my 2500kg V8 4WD truck.
Anybody who seriously believes those arguments should have their license immediately revoked. You only have to look at real world case studies [bts.gov] to see that speed reduction on USA highways was the major factor in 9000 fewer road deaths in 1974.
In 2002 the USA road toll exceeded 43,000 deaths. One-sixth of those deaths were solely due to unsafe driving speeds and speed was a contributing factor in more than one-half of the fatalities
Speeding is a crime because it results in deaths. It harms society. Not only because of the human cost (which is the most tragic loss) but also because of the wasted time and money spent cleaning the spilled blood off the roads.
So the message is clear: STOP SPEEDING.
Re:They do use Google... (Score:3, Insightful)
Problems with that:
1. Income from traffic tickets helps to pay for police. Not directly, but still... Without it, most cities would probably only be able to have half as many police.
2. Why do you think traffic laws shouldn't be enforced? Traffic fatalities are a MAJOR cause of death... Far above anything else police are involved in, let alone, anything they can help prevent.
3. Do you really want traffic cops to become detectives? There is no magic formula that is going to make that happen.
Dumbass, not-news article (Score:3, Insightful)
Makes you wonder how it took law enforcement that long to think of this.
No, not really. I'm pretty sure the cops figured out google a while ago, all around the world. It's just that its successful use is not fucking news!
What it really makes me wonder is what on earth these guys at CNN were on when they decided to run this.