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Wednesday, August 10, 2011 www.metronews.ca News worth sharing.
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‘It could happen in Ottawa’ City needs to deter crime driven by social media, by making arrests in local swarmings and ‘flashrobs’: Officer DAN KITWOOD/GETTY IMAGES
JESSICA SMITH
@METRONEWS.CA
An Ottawa police officer who investigates the use of technology and social media in crime says he’s been keeping an eye on the riots in Britain. “Obviously, if it could happen in London, it could happen in Ottawa,” said Insp. Don Sweet yesterday evening. Around the same time, 16,000 police were flooding the streets of London preparing for a fourth night of rioting. However, Sweet doesn’t see riots breaking out in Ottawa tomorrow. “London’s level of violence is a little bit bigger than we see in North America, when you look at their hooliganism and soccer games,” he said. “And right now, Ottawa’s a pretty stable city and economically, fortunately, our city and country have done pretty well.” Sweet is investigating the socalled “flashrob” at an Ottawa convenience store that occurred July 16. Like the riots in Britain, there’s speculation that the
Residents watch as a large fire engulfs shops and residential properties in Croydon yesterday in London. Inset: Youths are seen on a security camera allegedly ransacking a convenience store in Ottawa, in what some are calling a “flashrob.”
people who wanted to cause damage and loot en masse organized through social media and instant messaging. But unlike the riots in Britain, the incident was small, isolated and non-violent. Sweet said the technology is making it easier for people with criminal intent to organize — on a small scale or a large one. “Quite honestly, there’s not a lot we can do if a lot of dedicated people want to instantly message each other and go damage something and do a robbery,” he said. “In a perfect world, you’d like to get on top of this and monitor it, but we’re not going to push civil rights to where police are going to monitor everyone’s Twitter account or Facebook page,” he said. However, police are working on the problem in ways that Sweet said he’s “not at liberty to get into.” “We will do various things for counter-intelligence. We’re trying to do other strategies where we’re trying to get that information as it’s coming out,” he said.
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