Skip to main content

Making Friends

Since it seems like the MySpace 'fad' isn't going to go away anytime soon- and more than likely your child or a child you know has an account, there's a suggestion floating around that you might want to consider. We all know that online predators are out on the web in every one of the places that our kids will want to be- it's just in their deviant nature. But, more and more often local police agencies are popping up at those same places, hoping to bring a little online assistance to your kids. The suggestion is that you add a police department (local if possible, but any will do really) to your or your kids tops friends lists. It puts a direction connection to law enforcement in case of predators, or online bullies... making assistance just a few clicks away. There are dozens of them out there, available to 'friend' you or your kids, but just as a random sampling- here's a few to get you started.


NEWTON POLICE DEPARTMENT


L.P.D.


UNH Police Dept


RCPD


Miami-Dade Police Department


Fugitive Bureau Inc.


Fort Smith Police Cyber Cops


Ashland Police Department


PATROL SPECIAL POLICE


Kennesaw Police




La. Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force


LawEnforcementForums.com


Murphysboro Police Department


Worden Police Department



MCSO


PCSO


Cybercrime cop


Burlington Police


Mexican American Police Organization


Saline County Sheriff


And the article that popped this subject into my head tonight:

"Random people do send messages," said Sullivan. "It's kind of weird. You'll read it and it says hey, just want to see what's up. I'm 24. I'm 17 years old in high school. You shouldn't even be looking at my profile. It's just weird."

That's where the Herkimer and Mohawk Police Departments come in. They want to be your kid's number one friend on MySpace - hoping this patch with deter the bad guys.

"If the opportunity exists, you never know," said Officer Jody Wheet of the Herkimer Police Department. "But hopefully, we can stop it before it happens."

And if the patch isn't enough to keep the potential predators away, your kid will have easy access to the police, as another line of defense.

"They can send us an email, instant message; they can contact us if they run into a problem with a predator," Wheet said. "Somebody trying to approach them."

So what do teens really think of this top friend initiative?

"I'm sure that could strike enough fear into some predators, but some predators wouldn't even notice it," Smith said.

"It's for safety," Sullivan said. "So I'd do it."

It's a program that's just getting started, but police say they hope it takes off soon.

You can find these LE MySpace pages at www.myspace.com/herkimerpd or www.myspace.com/mohawkpd
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Florida Sex Offender Registry

Reading the news today, I was taken back to see that the Florida Sex Offender registry was being criticized. Having had the chance to look at it previously, I had always found it rather informative, and well organized. The issue that many are having with it now wouldn't be noticed by the occasional browser on the site. Which makes it even worse. A review of the FSR has found some rather unsettling statistics: The News-Press analyzed the Florida Department of Law Enforcement database of 36,306 sex offenders and found: • 9,205 of them are incarcerated • 7,037 have run away or can't be found • 824 have been deported; and • 516 are dead. Of the 15,573 sex offenders listed as released and not on parole or probation, only 11,355 of those actually live in Florida. Sex offender registries can only be usefully, and only fully do what they where designed to do when they are updated, maintained and monitored continuously. When you are relying on the SO registries to monitors how safe your...
15 comments
Read more

This land is my land, this land is not your land...

I was reading the illegal immigrant news this morning... you know, all about the Spanish National anthem... and all about their big rally May 2... and I started thinking. Perhaps, just perhaps we need to stand up. It may be a really good time to remind everyone who's country this is. 12 million illegals... heh, I think we can beat that. The rough estimate is that the US has a population of 298,000,000, or close too it. Take away the estimated 12 million illegals, and we still have 286,000,000 give or take some. So, basically, if one were to be honest- a boycott by legal citizens would be more impressive. 12 million illegals, who can not legally vote verses 286 million citizens who can minus children and some criminals. My country. Not theirs. My taxes, my jobs, my political leaders. 286 million people should be able to remind law makers just who put them in office. 286 million people should be able to remind companies who buys their products. 286 million people should be able to si...
13 comments
Read more

Lost Little Girl

It has been 11 years... dare I say hello to old friends?   There's a new crime, a new missing person, a new murdered woman, a new victim. Nothing has changed. All these years and still - its all the same.   Gabby Petito   She's just one of countless pretty white blonde girls that the main stream media has paraded in front of us, capturing our attention as they lay out the plot that will play across our TVs and phone screens as we wait... first for clues as to where she could be, then for the news she was found, we wait for the reports that it was a homicide, detais on her last encounters... we want to know the cause of death. More than that we want to know where her #vanlife sharing and who most of the world believes was her killer, boyfriend Brian Christopher Laundrie is.   How do they pick which missing person will make the best headlines? How do they determine that Gabby will bring more views than Mary Johnson ? or Dulce Maria Alavez ? Why not ...
Post a Comment
Read more