Criminal Law Archive

WhosArrested.com: Like Facebook for Criminals

April 14th, 2011. By AbiK

Who’s Arrested? Check out the “wall” posts at WhosArrested.com. It’s like Facebook’s dark twin (as opposed to the twins who’ve been suing Facebook). Well, it could be.

Think you’ve had a rough night—maybe a DUI or some drug possession charge—or maybe a bit of assault and battery—and you’re thinking as you awake the next morning—phew!—that at least the prior night is over with and who of your friends and family needs to be the wiser as to how you spent it?

Ah, but that was before you realized that your local public criminal record database is…drumroll please…online! Complete with all your vital stats, what you’ve been charged with, what bond was set at, and your mug shot if you’re lucky. Heck, if you’re a recidivist, you may even get a virtual contact sheet of your best mug shots.

Why, there’s a guy from Tampa who’s been racking up charges since 2006—27 individual counts in all, strikingly in line with his 27 years of age (though they occurre in just a 6 year period)—his contact sheet of mug shots are sort of like looking at all of someone’s uploaded Facebook profile shots—or your kid’s annual school pictures (‘my how’s he’s grown since ’06!’). Only you can’t comment on or thumbs-up these. And I can’t help but wonder how many pen pals this guy could rack up at Jailville, if it existed (note to Zynga).

Granted, the site is in a bit of a fledgling stage—it only covers 5 major metro areas right now: Las Vegas, Miami, Reno, Tampa and Phoenix—clearly hot spots (at least temperture-wise) for crime. But the information is updated with apparent frequency. Case in point—for the week March 3-9, those five cities have racked up the following numbers of arrests: Las Vegas – 1,176; Miami – 274; Reno – 256; Tampa – 537; and Phoenix – 248.

WhosArrested does allow individuals who are profiled to remove their listing (delete post? yes!) from public view, and ultimately search engines. But before you wipe the sweat from your brow, there’s a bit of a catch: it’ll set you back $99. Some might argue that’s a bit discriminatory—ie, you can pay your way out of infamy, if you can afford it. Perhaps another form of ’profiling’?

Regardless, WhosArrested.com is a bit of a neighborhood watch team’s dream. With stats like the fact that domestic violence tops the list in Vegas while possession is tops in Miami, along with the individual profiles, it sure beats trying to pull together the weekly local news police blotter. Split your WhosArrested screen with your local sex offender registry (nsopw.gov) and you’ve got pretty good tabs on the hood.

While WhosArrested may not be a friend’s wall I’d like to appear on anytime soon, it’s one that might be worth an occasional visit…

Tags: arrests, criminal record, Las Vegas, Miami, Phoenix, public criminal record database, Reno, Tampa, WhosArrested.com
Posted in Criminal Law, Emerging Issues | 7138No Comments »2011-04-14+14%3A42%3A50AbiK