In a surprising effort to increase the crime fighting potential of police departments, several are joining social networking sites in an attempt to cross the traditional jurisdictional boundaries that exist. There are plenty of web 2.0 applications that the police are turning to including Facebook, Twitter, and even YouTube. Some people might be surprised to learn just how successful this new tactic has become.

In February a police department in Maine turned to Facebook after an act of vandalism was caught by a security camera. They posted the video and a number of the members on Facebook took notice. Within a short amount of time the identities of the vandals were uncovered and they were eventually arrested. With so many users of these social networking sites, it is easy to see why police departments would want to take advantage of this kind of publicity.

Of course there are some potential issues that police departments have to deal with. In the case of the Maine incident, police chose to blur the faces of the vandals to avoid any legal issues that might arise.

Seeing the potential of this type of publicity, several companies are beginning to develop web 2.0 tools designed specifically for this purpose. Many members of the law fighting community are encouraging this type of effort as well.

One service that will be available to police is called CrimeDex. It is being developed by a former police officer named Jim Hudson. He described the service as “the digital equivalent of the old-fashioned Western sheriffs nailing a wanted poster to a tree.”