Reckless Driving Charges Due to Facebook
Chalk this up in the “Don’t post your crimes on Facebook” category. Like I’ve written about before, the police are on Facebook too!
In New Haven, Connecticut, three men were arrested and charged with various traffic violations after taunting police officers. The men would allegedly find police cars and try to get the officers to chase them. Two men on four-wheelers would perform stunts and shout at the officers to come get them while a third man videotaped the incident from a car. Police also say that most of these stunts were performed at night with no lights on.
These men actually have a Facebook page for the encounters, which they started in January. They post the videos of the stunts and chases on there and encourage people to like and promote their page.
This page assisted police in finding the three men as people began sending links to the police department’s Facebook page. Through the videos and pictures posted on the page, police identified the three drivers who have now been arrested and charged.
The man driving the car and videotaping was charged with liability for the acts of others while the other two four-wheeler riders were charged with reckless driving, failure to bring a motor vehicle to a full stop, and operating on an all-terrain vehicle without a registration. One of the two was also charged with driving on a suspended license. Though the men have engaged in these stunts multiple times since January, the charges stemmed from only one incident.
