First they used pagers. Then, cellphones.
Now gangsters and other criminals are using Facebook and Twitter, and the police are chasing them online.
In Atlanta, detectives scribble down gang tags scrawled on walls then search social networking sites for anyone posting under that tag. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation spotted pornographic photos of children that were posted on Facebook, leading to an arrest. And in Cobb County, investigators department-wide have incorporated online social networks into their daily routines, said Sgt. Dana Pierce, a police department spokesman.
"When a detective has a person in their sights," Pierce told the AJC, "one of the first things they do before they hit the road is look for them on Facebook, or any other tools that are out there."
Pierce said criminals, such as unwitting gang members, will sometimes post information that can help with an investigation. While not essential to a case, the details can reassure detectives that they're following the right suspect.
"There's not the detail there that would allow one to get a conviction," Pierce said. "But it tells us what's going on."
Even rural counties are plugging in. The Cherokee County Sheriff's Office uses Facebook to learn about subjects in missing person cases, for instance.
"If we have a missing teenager, we'll go to their Facebook page," Lt. Jay Baker told the AJC.
On Thursday, Crime Stoppers Atlanta got into the game, integrating Facebook and Twitter into its Web site. Now, with a few clicks, people can add a photo of a wanted suspect to their Facebook page and spread the word to their friends. They can also send anonymous tips to Crime Stoppers, which is funded by the Atlanta Police Foundation. And authorities can spread warnings about dangerous suspects on the lam.
The idea is to make it easy for residents to communicate with police, Miguel Sepulveda, the Atlanta Crime Stopper's director, told the AJC. "The reality is that most people nowadays, especially the age group we are targeting, are on Facebook and using these tools."
Lt. Byron K. Martin, the Atlanta Police Department's Homeland Security commander, said online social networks have helped police keep pace with a changing society. When Martin started on the police force a quarter century ago, he was assigned a walking beat. He gained the confidence of people he met on his daily rounds, and some of them became tipsters. But these days, the people committing crimes don't necessarily live on the block, and the residents don't necessarily know them, he said. Increasingly, the criminals are just passing through.
"It would be very difficult to police that way now," he said. "It's a lot more transient and a lot more hi-tech." He said evidence like gang tags on a wall can become a doorway to more information on the Web. Enter the tag -- which is a kind of pseudonym or handle -- into a social networking site, and you may find a wealth of information, he said.
"Not that we would use it as evidence, but we would use it as case-building," Martin said.
The new technology can also help with crowd control. Martin said the Web service Twitter came in handy during the recent effort to resurrect the Freaknik party -- a sprawling and rowdy car-based event that, in its prime over a decade ago, would lock down Atlanta streets for days on end.
Officers monitored postings on Twitter to track the location and nature of spontaneous gatherings, Martin said. "It helped us develop intelligence about what was going on and what our response needed to be."
John Whitaker, the special agent in charge of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation's hi-tech unit, said social networking is still in its infancy as a policing tool.
Each year, the GBI charges more than a hundred people with child pornography, a major focus of the hi-tech unit. Most of these cases are made with the help of older Web sites, such as Craigslist, peer-to-peer networking sites or internet chat rooms, Whitaker said.
But recently the GBI used Facebook to make an arrest after a suspect actually posted pornographic pictures online, Whitaker said.
The GBI tried to use Facebook to build another case, but never made an arrest because the suspect, who was involved in chats with undercover officers, didn't quite cross the line into soliciting sex, Whitaker said.
It's unclear whether online social networks will become more useful to police in coming years, or whether they're a fad that will fade away.
But one thing is clear: police are paying attention. Within the past year, the GBI held a seminar for local investigators across Georgia who wanted to learn how to use MySpace in their detective work.
There was seating for 60. And, said Whitaker, "it was completely full. We filled up every seat."
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