The disappearances of Jay Slater (main), Nicola Bulley (top inset) and Dr Michael Mosley (bottom inset) have all attracted the attention of amateur detectives (Picture: PA/Rex)
The rise of so-called internet sleuths is an aspect of investigations police need to learn to harness rather than simply turning a blind eye to, according to the UK’s top criminologist.
British teenager Jay Slater’s disappearance on Tenerife is the latest in a series of high profile cases to have attracted the gaze of amateur detectives eager to crack the case.
In the vacuum of official updates, social media was quickly flooded with conspiracy theories speculating about what may have happened to him and groups dedicated to poring over grainy CCTV images suggesting their own leads to follow.
Others have taken the more drastic step of flying out to the Spanish holiday island to undertake their own informal inquiries on the ground.
But while the terms ‘armchair detective’ and ‘internet sleuth’ can be used to dismiss those with a keen interest in a case, can there be a place for them alongside traditional police investigations?
Internet sleuths – a help or a hindrance?
Speaking to Metro, renowned criminologist, best-selling author and broadcaster Professor David Wilson says an interest in true crime ‘is not just normal – it’s essential’.
‘There is a kind of look-down-your-nose attitude sometimes about people who are interested in true crime, and I understand that label “true crime” is a catch-all label,’ he goes on.
‘On one level the label encompasses that gratuitous interest in a serial killer, who he might have killed and what he did to his victims.
‘But at the other level, at the broader level, it’s an interest in which people are genuinely concerned in finding justice.
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Jay Slater, from Oswaldtwistle, Lancashire, disappeared following an attempt to walk back to his accommodation after missing a bus (Picture: Facebook)
‘I think it’s interesting that we’ve found, though, negative labels to describe people who are interested in that.
‘We call them “armchair detectives”, we call them “web sleuths”, the police complain about “noise”.
‘But then on the other hand, the police can’t have it both ways.
‘The first group of people they will appeal to in any investigation is the public, because the public is likely to have information that is going to help solve the crime.
‘And whether they like it or not, because of the internet and social media this is now simply another element that has to be managed within any police investigation.’
Have ‘internet sleuths’ ever solved a crime?
Prof Wilson points to the hit Netflix docuseries ‘Don’t F**k With Cats’, about a murderer whose snuff films so appalled social media users that a mob of them made it their mission to track him down.
They dissected the gruesome clips frame-by-frame and used otherwise trivial background items like plug sockets and cross-referencing meta data with Google Maps to narrow down their search.
Professor David Wilson with his …read more
Source:: Metro
