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?"
i'm glad (Score:4, Interesting)
Similar story (Score:5, Interesting)
Facial Recognition software? (Score:5, Interesting)
What about facial recognition software used for this purpose? If drivers license pictures were standardized and pictures taken at the morgue were made to the same standard (assuming the face of the disceased in not injured/damaged) is facial recognition software good enough to be used to try to identify John Does?
So... what is the news here? (Score:1, Interesting)
Now if google could only date (date when google archived the information) the result entries....
I call this google stalking ... (Score:5, Interesting)
I once had a guy email me and accuse me of stealing his Bang & Olufsen turntable that I was selling on ebay. He said he sold one on ebay two weeks prior to my auction and that the bidder (who happened to be 100 miles from me had made a claim that it was broken. He paid out on the claim. He accused me of being in cohorts with someone to pull a fast one and get the turntable, collect on insurance, then resell it on ebay for a double profit.
Well, I ended up googling his email address. Turns out - I got something to this affect on a "Discreet Personals Website" in Colorado:
"Male looking for other males for discreet, private meetings - into play, but nothing too rough"
I emailed him and told him I had found some information about him that I might post to eBayers That Suck dot com.
He didn't bother me after that.
I always google any problematic customer to see if they are a complainer on line or have anything "strange" about them - or are possibly on another business's hit list.
I google potential girlfriends names and if I have them, email addresses.
If you google my ID; adzoox, it brings up my website and home town of Greenville SC and things about me in the Upstate of South Carolina. Lots of google results are my slashdot posts from the past 3-4 months.
Re:They do use Google... (Score:3, Interesting)
You have a guy in the office, not a gun-carrying/badge-waving cop...but a researcher. Someone that digs through the evidence, searches on the web to come up with possible solutions to cases then turn them over to the gun-carrying/badge-waving guys to go out and make an arrest or search warrent or other "cop-doings".
Just a thought...and not, not the CSI guys.
Re:They do use Google... (Score:3, Interesting)
Unfortunately, detectives are often given a certain number of hours to work a case. If they can't get a significant lead or significant potential progress on the case within that time, the case gets shelved and the detective is handed another case. Though I don't disagree that a better priorization system may result in more effective use of detective's time, I think that the root cause of the problem is that most police departments don't have enough people to get the job done.
Another incidence of google solving crime (Score:4, Interesting)
Here's a link
http://www.canoe.ca/CNEWSLaw0206/11_hijacker-cp.h
Re:I call this google stalking ... (Score:1, Interesting)
Re:CSI: Google Geek (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Sort of off topic... (Score:3, Interesting)
robots.txt will soon be illegal (Score:2, Interesting)
Did the cops use this to find a drug dealer? (Score:2, Interesting)
For some reason i was getting all these hits from google with people typing in "tommy savage" who ran a guest house i stayed at in Amsterdam. Turns out he the law thinks he is some huge drug dealer. Shipping huge amounts of grass into Greece.
The big question is did all the cops have to do is type his name into google and up pops my website with directions on how to find him?
I hope not because incoent or guilty he looked after me when i stayed there.
Here is the website incase any of you are curious.
http://www.geocities.com/babajuma
or if you just want the bit about tommy
http://www.geocities.com/babajuma/tommy.html