Ontario Provincial Police used the Facebook networking site to thwart an illegal bush party planned by teenagers over the weekend.
More than 700 teens had said they would attend the bash, on private property in the Tillsonburg area, about 175 kilometres southwest of Toronto. Party details had been posted on a public page of the social networking site.
Police said a local resident tipped them off about the party. An officer then used his personal account to post a message on the Facebook site, telling potential partygoers that police knew about the illegal event and would patrol the area and lay charges for trespassing.
In the end, police patrolled the planned party location last Saturday but no one showed up. "We patrolled the area for several hours and the party didn't seem to appear," said OPP Const. Mark Foster. "We had no one show up in the area whatsoever."
Shortly after the party flop, though, teenagers were already writing about plans for the next big bush party.
"We just need to be more sneaky. … It was just a mistake posting it too soon," one user wrote.
Foster acknowledged that users could lead police on a wild goose chase with such postings, but said he's not worried.
The force does not patrol the website for potential illegal activity, instead using it only in conjunction with tips from the public.
Foster said, however, that Facebook has increasingly become a resource for police forces. It has been used to track down missing persons, find witnesses and even identify suspects.
"It seems to be turning out to be an extremely important tool for police," he said.
