By Scott J. Croteau
Telegram & Gazette
WORCESTER, Mass. — While searching for a suspect or a missing person or investigating other types of cases, police continue to use tactics used since the beginning of law enforcement.
They hit the streets, knock on doors, track addresses and seek out informants.
But in these times police also find themselves hitting the virtual world of online social networking and gaming Web sites to find information.
Such was the case in Barre earlier this month when police were looking for a 13-year-old runaway girl from their town. The search ended about a week later when she was found safe in a Worcester apartment.
Police started out chasing leads that led them as far away as Maine. They received assistance from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, and the girl’s family posted fliers with her name around town.
Then police went online, after the girl’s mother told police her daughter was updating her MySpace page, even as the search for her continued.
“We have to learn. It is still the old mentally of walking the beat and knocking on doors. But you have to know this is the time of new technology where you can find people through cellphone pings or computer use,” Barre Police Chief Erik J. Demetropoulos said.
Barre police checked the girl’s MySpace pages and found she had four different handles - names she goes by on the social networking Web site. They checked each one and found the name she used most frequently, the chief said.
Chief Demetropoulos contacted the law enforcement section of MySpace and then kept the girl’s MySpace accounts on his computer as an icon. When someone logs into a MySpace account, normally an icon appears on the page showing if the person is online or not.
Police also checked to see the girl’s last login time, another feature on the MySpace Web site.
Eventually, she logged in on a land line - a phone in a home, rather than a cell phone or other mobile device - and police were able to track the latitude and longitude of the user’s internet protocol address, known commonly as an IP address - a computer’s numerical address.
“We found an exact location,” the chief said.
Worcester police were contacted and the girl was found in an apartment, unharmed. She was taken into custody and faces charges in juvenile court.
“It really worked out well for us,” Chief Demetropoulos said.
Looking through a person’s social networking page, whether it is MySpace or other popular Web sites such as Facebook, can also help police find a person’s friends. Police can contact those people to find someone.
Chief Demetropoulos said checking social networking Web sites is akin to running criminal background checks: It is something that can be done when needed.
Cell phone companies also help when searching for someone, the chief said, noting companies can ping - or track - cell phones and see where they are being used, based on the cell towers in the area.
But the chief noted that face-to-face contact is important, since someone can claim to be someone else over the phone or the Internet.
The ability to track a person over the Internet using IP addresses was highlighted earlier this month in Indiana, when a member of the Howard County Sheriff’s Department tracked a fugitive wanted on drug dealing charges on the popular fantasy gaming Web site World of Warcraft.
Deputy Matthew Roberson, a narcotics detective with the Howard Country Sheriff’s Department, said he tracked Alfred Hightower, a 56-year-old man, through activity on the popular site.
While searching for Mr. Hightower, Deputy Roberson learned he might be in Canada. One of his majors learned through a confidential informant that Mr. Hightower regularly played a witches and warlocks-type game, the deputy said in an interview.
The deputy knew what game the informant was talking about; he used to play the game.
Documenting probable cause, Deputy Roberson sent a court order to Blizzard Entertainment - the company for the game - and eventually the company sent back billing information and the IP address.
The address was old, but the deputy was able to track it to Ottawa.
He sent the information to U.S. marshals. Canadian authorities were notified and Mr. Hightower - after two years of hiding - is now back in the United States facing the drug charges.
Deputy Roberson said that shortly after the World of Warcraft case, which has drawn interest across the world, he was searching for someone to serve with a felony warrant. He found the suspect’s Facebook page, got a picture of him and was able to find him.
“Everybody is on the Internet these days,” he said.
Worcester police Gang Unit members have checked Facebook or MySpace pages of people to see if they are claiming gang affiliation.
Schools also check the social networking Web sites as well.
In December, some students from the Miscoe Hill School in Mendon were suspended after a page on Facebook popped up that posed a perceived threat to a school administrator.
School officials complained to police about a Facebook page titled, “If 1,000 people join I’ll slap Mrs. Meyers,” referring to Miscoe Hill School Assistant Principal Ann J. Meyer.
Police investigated. School officials said most of the children who responded to the page were interviewed, and several were suspended.
“It (the Internet) is a great source of information,” Deputy Roberson said. Using online searching along with conventional policing methods is “a changing of the guard.”
Copyright 2010 Telegram & Gazette