The Profile Police: Campus Officers Cruise Facebook, MySpace for Clues To School-Related Crimes
April 14, 2009 | Virginia News
As high school students flock to social networking sites, campus police are scanning their Facebook and MySpace pages for tips to help break up fights, monitor gangs and thwart crime in what amounts to a new cyberbeat.
Some students object to police looking over their shoulders. But officers responsible for school safety say routine checks of the online forums often add to the knowledge they glean from hallways or schoolyards.
"I can't tell you how many fights we've been able to prevent," said Officer Freddie Rappina, who is based at Robinson Secondary School in Fairfax County.
He and another officer watch over more than 4,000 students at the largest school in Virginia. In Rappina's small office at the end of a series of long hallways, a flat-panel computer screen offers him a portal into student life.
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