Daily BrewLondon, Ont. police confer with Vancouver cops on ways to probe St. Patrick’s Day riot
As police in London, Ont., ramped up their investigation of last weekend's St. Patrick's Day riot, they're consulting their Vancouver counterparts on the blueprint they developed in the wake of last June's Stanley Cup riot.
Social media and crowd-sourced video has played a major part in the Vancouver police probe into the June 15 riot that trashed the city's downtown, including a special web site to help identify suspects from the avalanche of photos and video they received.
"We will be liaising to look for some ideas as to how they moved forward," London police Deputy Chief Brent Shea said in the Toronto Star.
Police arrested 13 people, including seven students from Fanshawe College, after a St. Patrick's Day street party in the Fleming Drive neighbourhood where many students live turned into a booze-fueled riot Saturday night.
The size of the crowd has been estimated at almost 1,000 people when police tried to break up the party and found themselves under attack from a barrage of bottles and other debris. The violence escalated, with a news van torched and several police cruisers damaged.
Like the Vancouver riot, the London disruption was documented by witnesses using the cameras on their mobile phones, as well as by postings on social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook.
Police now have to sift through photos and video submitted by witnesses. The Star said 20 officers have been assigned to comb social media for evidence that can connect posters with suspects.
"Social media will be a strong positive in this investigation," Shea said. "It will give us the opportunity to reach out quickly."
Shea said the social-network aspect of the investigation would take several weeks but if the Vancouver experience is anything to go by, that might be an optimistic estimate.
Police were inundated with potential evidence from social media and the investigation slowed to a crawl. It's a complex task to tie a suspects tweets or Facebook posts with photos or other evidence that connects them with a crime, officials said.
To date, Vancouver's integrated riot investigation team has recommended about 350 charges against 150 suspects, according to a CBC News report. One person, convicted of helping wreck a police car and vandalizing a store based on video evidence has been sentenced to 17 months in jail.
Meanwhile, officials in London are taking a hard look at the off-campus student-housing neighbourhood where the riot took place. The Globe and Mail reports Fleming Drive has a notorious reputation for big parties and occasional violence in recent years.
Mayor Joe Fontana told CBC News the city will look at options to prevent future violence, including an increased police presence in the neighbourhood, curfews and using zoning rules to break up student enclaves.
