Combating tech-fueled flash mobs a new problem for police

With the help of cell phones and social networking sites, spontaneous swarms of youths have rushed into convenience stores or assaulted bystanders in a rash of “flash mobs” across the United States.

Most recently surveillance cameras recorded several dozen young people flooding into convenience stores in Germantown, Maryland and Washington, D.C. where they stole armfuls of snacks and drinks as employees watched helplessly.

Meanwhile earlier this month, city leaders in Philadelphia were forced to impose an early curfew on certain areas of the city after roving bands of teens beat and robbed residents in a wave of attacks across the city.

Police say the flash mobs were organized using cell phones and social media sites like Twitter and Facebook.

“You’re looking at an emerging form of crime,” said Sean Varano, a criminologist at Roger Williams University in Bristol, Rhode Island. “We don’t know what power these police agencies have to monitor these Web sites or where do reasonable expectations of privacy start.”

A recent survey of 106 retailers by the National Retailer Federation found that one in ten retailers had been hit by a criminal flash mob.

“These crimes are not new,” said Joseph LaRocca, a senior adviser with the retail federation. “What’s new is the social network and Internet activity to coordinate these ad hoc attacks against stores.”

“We’re still trying to figure out how best to address these issues,” he added.

Law enforcement officials are also struggling to find a way to effectively combat this new phenomenon which does not impede on privacy rights.

Earlier this month, in response to flash mob violence in Cleveland suburbs, the Cleveland City Council sought to make it illegal to organize a flash mob using Facebook, Twitter, or other social media service, but Mayor Frank Jackson vetoed the proposal stating that it curtailed residents’ rights.

“Use of this technology in a criminal way and how we react to it — without throwing away the Constitution — is a challenge we all have,” Jackson says. “We want to be responsible.”

Meanwhile in highly controversial move, San Francisco transit authorities shut down cell phone service at its stations in an effort to quash scheduled protests over the shooting of a homeless man by Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) police. The move has drawn sharp criticism and prompted more protests.

“I’m deeply disturbed by the idea that a government agency will shut down cell phone service if they suspect there is a planned protest,” said Rebecca Jeschke, the media relations director of the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

Jeschke added that shutting down cell phone service to stop protests – a tactic employed by the Egyptian government during protests aimed at ousting former President Hosni Mubarek – is uncommon in the United States.

BART officials defended their actions stating that the tactic was a legal way to ensure a safe commute.

Gene Policinski, executive director of the First Amendment Center at Vanderbilt University, said it was acceptable for police to browse Facebook pages or Twitter accounts, but shutting down cell phone service ahead of an anticipated crime crosses the line and encroaches on constitutional rights.

“We open up a dangerous area if we start empowering agencies to prevent us from speaking because it might down the road lead to something else,” Policinski says.

For the time being, there will be no clear answers to this growing phenomenon as the law struggles to keep pace with technology.