Pennsylvania police post perp pix on Pinterest

The Pottstown Mercury, a newspaper in Pottstown, Pennsylvania, recently started posting police mugshots of wanted criminals on Pinterest. Sounds crazy, right? Well, the novel use of a social networking site known best for nail art, cupcakes, and motivational posters with bad typography has become quite a success for local law enforcement. As you can see by scrolling through the board, users are sharing comments on where police might look for each wanted man or woman. Here's an interview with one of the paper's "Pinners," and more context on Poynter. According to an interview with police in the Pottstown Mercury, the project has resulted in a 58% increase in arrests.

Boing Boing editor/partner and tech culture journalist Xeni Jardin hosts and produces Boing Boing's in-flight TV channel on Virgin America airlines (#10 on the dial), and writes about living with breast cancer. Diagnosed in 2011. @xeni on Twitter. email: xeni@boingboing.net.

MORE: Funny • justice • law • News • police • social media • Technology

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http://twitter.com/digitalArtform Joseph Francis

I thought you weren’t supposed to post your own stuff like that.
Antinous / Moderator

The guy on the left can hide out at my place.
- Brainspore
  
  He’s apparently some kind of abuser. Just sayin’.
  - Antinous / Moderator
    
    Highly likely that I’m bigger than him.
    - Brainspore
      
      Better make sure you have handcuffs ready, just in case. Or at least some kind of leather wrist restraints.
      - Antinous / Moderator
        
        Teach your grandmother to suck eggs.
      - Brainspore
        
        [EDIT: I initially misread that response, have since used google-machine to learn the meaning of the phrase. Carry on.]
      - Antinous / Moderator
        
        I thought that everyone knew that. Maybe it’s a Britishism.
      - Tynam
        
        It’s too old and general to be purely a Britishism, going back at least as far as 1700, with related sayings going back a century or two before that.
      - Antinous / Moderator
        
        If it’s old and rude and funny, it probably originates in Scotland.
      - http://profiles.yahoo.com/u/DHML3RPNIIK5PVV76J7IMY6DJY Denver
        
        In 55 years this is the second time I’ve seen this phrase used outside of a Heinlein novel. The first time it nearly started a fight.
      - Antinous / Moderator
        
        http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teaching_grandmother_to_suck_eggs
      - Brainspore
        
        I initially assumed it to be a variant of “go suck an egg,” which is sometimes used as a PG-rated way of telling someone to go fuck themselves.
http://imcravingpresidency.tumblr.com/ SedanChair

Shoplifters and pot smokers. Somebody get out the fucking bat-signal
andyhavens

English is very flexible. When you’re looking to do alliteration, try eliminating the odd word out by just doing a grammatical switcheroo. Instead of:

Pennsylvania police post
perp pix on Pinterest

How about…

Pennsylvania police post
Pinterest perp pix

See? No ungainly “on” in there. Try it yourself at home!
- DevinC
  
  I was going to post that Xeni won the Internet today for that headline, but yours is even better.
  - Donald Petersen
    
    After trying them both on for size, I’m forced to agree… and to squeegee off my monitor.
echar

Creating a society of rats. Big brother is outsourcing now.
Work_Watch_Buy_Repeat

Agents of the government can call these citizens “Suspects”, maybe.

But the government doesn’t get to label them “Perpetrators” or “Perps” until/unless they’re proven guilty in a court of law.
- silkox
  
  Pure pedantry. The perp walk is a time-honored media tradition. This just expands it to social media. Bound to happen sooner or later, but still cool.
TheMudshark

Always comforting to be reminded how eager people are to rat others out for a pat on the head by the authorities.