Police in Ontario consider YouTube effective crime fighting tool

sanctus

The Padre
Oct 27, 2006
4,558
48
48
Ontario
www.poetrypoem.com
AMILTON (CP) - Hamilton police say they now consider YouTube to be an effective crime fighting tool after an online clip led to an arrest in a murder case.

Twenty-two-year-old Ryan Milner was stabbed to death in a parking lot after attending a hip hop concert last month. A 24-year-old man, George Gallo, turned himself into police about two weeks after a 72-second surveillance video from the concert site was posted online. Police say the clip didn't lead to any witnesses coming forward, but the extra attention paid to the case because of the use of YouTube likely encouraged the suspect to turn himself in.

Hamilton police believe it's the first time law enforcement has used YouTube as a direct investigative tool.

Staff Sgt. Jorge Lasso, who made the decision to post the clip online, says the video had registered some 34,000 hits as of today.

Police say they are not looking for any other suspects.

As of Thursday morning, the clip was downloaded almost 34,000 times.

Police said they would consider using YouTube again in future investigations although it would not be appropriate in all cases.

Deputy chief Ken Leendertse said he was proud of his officers for thinking outside the box and using technology in their investigation.

Police also scoured a hip hop website to read postings of people who were at the concert and were potential witnesses.

Police decided those people needed to be targeted for information.

"Most of the people who attended (the concert) were in their late teens and early twenties," said Det. Sgt. Jorge Lasso.

"My own children are in that age category and they spend all their time on the Internet; they do not watch mainstream media. . . . The investigators talked about how they could get the video viewed by the people who attended the performance and we decided that it was quite likely they would view it online."


Copyright © 2006 Canadian Press