Police embrace emerging social media tool

[Shadow]

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Minutes after a shooting near the Oakland Airport this year, the gunman was on the loose. And police Sgt. Chris Bolton quickly fired off a flurry of text alerts to thousands of nearby residents through a social media tool for law enforcement agencies.

"Stay out of area," said one alert. "Multiple shooting victims reported. Medical on-scene. Police are evacuating a nearby, affected business."
Officers would eventually discover a grisly scene inside a tiny Christian college on that spring day. Seven people were killed, three others wounded and dozens terrified in the deadliest mass shooting in the city's history.

Bolton later gave those on edge an update: "Possible suspect in custody. No imminent public safety threat appears to exist in immediate area."
Across the country, law officers are adding a new form of social media to their arsenal of crime fighting tools.

http://news.yahoo.com/police-embrace-emerging-social-media-tool-150141734.html

[aboutime]

I think it is a great tool, if used correctly.
Much like the Email Alerts being used by Colleges since the Virginia Tech mass shootings.
Being able to warn possible TORNADO victims before they touch down, has also proven to be effective in many recent cases.

We cannot forget. Today, as NASA, and the space programs we once knew no longer exist. How NASA and Space programs WERE the reasons behind most of what we all enjoy today, as the standards of Technology in Cell phones, and the Internet, with I-Phones, and all the rest.

Where would all of us be...IF we didn't take the space programs of the JFK days in the Sixties seriously????

This is good for all of us.