NEWS > 06 February 2007

Article sourced from

Eagle Tribune - North Andover,
06 February 2007

This article appeared in the above title/site.
To view it in its entirity click this link.

Police seek subpoena to find o

Lawrence police are seeking a subpoena against MySpace.com, demanding it reveal the name of the person who posted a fake - and lurid - Police Department Web page on its site.

Police Chief John Romero said he is "outraged" and if an officer is behind the Web page, the officer could face disciplinary action. If it is not an officer, Romero said he will seek criminal or civil sanctions against the responsible party for pretending to be police.

"Some of the stuff and language on that Web site is pretty raunchy. It's offensive, there's no question about it," said Romero. "For somebody to use the Lawrence police logo and link it to a Web site like this could be very damaging to the department's reputation and integrity. And that's why we have to get to the bottom of it."

The page, which has been taken down by MySpace, was realistic looking, displaying a facsimile of the department's patch and links encouraging users to check out the department's real Web site. It even said to call 911 in case of emergency.

However, in small type it was labeled "The Unofficial 'Official' Home of the LAWPD," and claimed to be "designed by affiliates of the Lawrence Police Department."

It also had more than 170 "friends" links, some containing suggestive photos of young girls, some from Lawrence. There was another image of a scantily clad police woman wearing only a gun holster, obscene language and provocative dating advertisements as well as real links to the Haverhill Police Department and the Lawrence Fire Department.

"Any reasonable person would be offended by what they see there, especially somebody from the law enforcement community," Romero said. "Frankly, it's bad stuff that shouldn't be linked to us."

MySpace is the hub of social networking on the Internet, boasting some 72 million users. Like any MySpace page, people contact the Police Department site and ask to be a "friend." Once they are accepted, they are able to post messages and photographs on the site.

MySpace spokeswoman Tracy Akselrun said the company will reveal who posted the site, if they are subpoenaed.

In an e-mailed statement, she said photos that contain "nudity, sexually explicit content, violent or offensive material, or copyrighted images are a violation of the MySpace terms of service."

"MySpace will not tolerate users who violate our terms of service and disrupt the way our community works. When alerted to these issues we will remove the user in question and/or work with law enforcement, as appropriate," she said.

The site was discovered by a secretary for the Lawrence Police Department by accident. She was looking for the department's real Web site when she encountered the MySpace page.

"The fact that our secretary hit this unauthorized site while setting up a new computer makes me suspect that a lot of people visited it - and that's not a good thing for our image," Romero said.

As a result of what was discovered in Lawrence, Haverhill police took a look at its MySpace page yesterday. The department-sponsored page also contained some lurid "friends" links but they were promptly taken down.

EiP Comments:

* We have no wish to infringe the copyright of any newspaper or periodical. If you feel that we have done so then please contact us with the details and we will remove the article. The articles republished on this site are provided for the purposes of research , private study, criticism , review, and the reporting of current events' We have no wish to infringe the copyright of any newspaper , periodical or other works. If you feel that we have done so then please contact us with the details and where necessary we will remove the work concerned.

Other related articles:

Article sourced from

Eagle Tribune - North Andover,06 February 2007

Police seek subpoena to find o

EiP Comments:

Eagle Tribune - North Andover,
06 February 2007