Tracking crime on Twitter

Scanning the airwaves for police radio conversations is something professional crime reporters have done for decades. But now a whole new group of people are embracing this old-school technique.

In Los Angeles a growing band of residents has invested in scanners to monitor police conversations and spread what they learn across the city on the social networking site Twitter. Between them they now have over thirty thousand Twitter followers.

Alex Thompson decided to buy a scanner when she realised how little she actually knew about crime in her area. She says she now never switches it off, even listening late at night in bed.

It's been an absolute revelation, she says, to find out what's...

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