I came across an article in my hometown paper today about YouTube being used by police agencies to catch crooks. More and more, surveillance videos from robberies and crimes are being uploaded to YouTube to identify the perps (how’s that for some cop lingo?), and it’s working. One such case involved a fatal stabbing at a concert in Ontario, Canada. A 72 second video from a security camera was posted on YouTube, where it was viewed over 35,000 times. The police were able to make an arrest within 2 weeks of posting the video.

So is YouTube making a difference, or is it just good old fashioned police work? In the case of the murder above, I have to wonder how many people actually viewed it to see if they knew the killer, as opposed to the video getting passed around by email because it showed someone being murdered. (”Hey bro…you gotta check out this dude gettin’ whacked on YouTube!”)

This all reminds me of when the TV show America’s Most Wanted started in the 80’s. It completely changed how technology can help to stop crimes. Average people, in their living rooms now played an active part in catching crooks. Now we can do the same from our laptops. Or just forward the videos to our friends for shock value.