YouTube Takes On America's Most Wanted

Culture

from the somebody's-watching-me dept

Broadcast networks and law enforcement found some success in the nineties using television programs to help hunt down criminals by exposing them to the public eye. It appears that America’s Most Wanted is now getting some competition from YouTube, as police have started using the site in order to track down potential suspects. Cops in Ontario have posted this video to the site in the hopes of identifying two potential suspects and solving the recent murder of a 22 year old in a club. While using YouTube is the natural evolution of this crime-busting technique, traditional broadcast crime-busting probably remains more effective (for now) due to the larger number of viewers (the Ontario film has just 2,986 views). Still, it’s interesting the way that pervasive video and broadband distribution is making committing crime that much more difficult, either because you were caught on camera, stupidly posted a video of yourself doing something illegal to YouTube, or because the homeowner of the house you tried to rob was watching you via broadband from across the ocean.