Students and anonymous users of Yik Yak and Unseen rejoice, police aren’t on creeping on your posts — yet.
Anonymous social media outlets — including Yik Yak and Unseen — could be considered the digital equivalent to the Wild West.
There’s a lot going on in those apps that shouldn’t be, but there is no real way to police it.
Mobile applications like these are too vast in their volume of posts, with their electronic trail trickling off almost immediately.
That’s not to say that there isn’t an existing effort to monitor social media amongst police forces in Athens, but the results are often obsolete.
“If we really dig into some of that, do we have enough time to address real issues?” Athens Police Department Captain Ralph Harvey said. “There’s always that conundrum; there’s a weight to whether you should deal with the anonymous.”
But after an anonymous death threat to Ohio University President Roderick McDavis was issued through the photo-sharing mobile application Unseen Oct. 16 alleging that McDavis would be shot Oct. 20, local law enforcement had reason to pick up their smart phones and start digging for information.
The Ohio University Police Department isn’t actively scrolling through feeds like Unseen’s, Lt. Tim Ryan said, though it will if any calls logged with their department point to anonymous applications like those.
“There are literally an unlimited number of places that someone could post something anonymously, and we certainly do diligence to track down cases and crimes where they occur,” Ryan said. “I think that it is a burden for us to monitor all of the internet. There's just literally not a way to do that."
APD Chief Tom Pyle said he can see how apps like those — though he wasn’t aware of them before the death threat — can instantly create dangerous situations stemming from their anonymity.
“Anonymity and law enforcement don’t go very well together at all,” Pyle said, adding that when the department receives an anonymous complaint to dispatch, it typically can’t be investigated as thoroughly as one that’s clearly stated.
“We can’t do a lot with those,” Pyle said. “The courts rule they’re unreliable; people can claim anything in an anonymous setting and there’s no repercussion.
“I question the motives of anyone who would post something anonymously.”
The department would consider getting on Unseen and Yik Yak to check them out for investigative leads, as they have with social networks like Facebook and Twitter in the past, though Pyle said he isn’t sure it would be as beneficial.
Pyle added that on a fairly regular basis, calls will be made to dispatch for illegal activity users saw on social media. Investigators will often take to social media to search for conversations surrounding local crime, or possible suspects.
The Athens County Sheriff’s Office has been using Facebook heavily to post pictures and information regarding suspects, which interim Sheriff Rodney Smith said has been helpful, but doesn’t take to Twitter to look for offenders.
“We don’t do Twitter at all; it’s not as easy to trace things back,” Smith said, adding that he’d consider scrolling through Unseen or Yik Yak.
“Even if it doesn’t tie back to anyone, it never hurts to have that information.”
eo300813@ohio.edu
