WSVN — When it comes to solving crime or handling emergencies, police are turning more and more to online technology to give them an advantage. 7’s Robbin Simmons has more.
Murphy Dunn is safe at home now but last week, the teenager who has autism, gave his family a scare.
Deborah Guzman, Murphy’s mom: "One minute he was waiting by the door and as I came out of my room he was gone."
Fifteen-year old Murphy, who is non-verbal and on medication is also 6 feet tall. He walked out the front door and took off.
Deborah Guzman: "Everyone had seen him, but no one stopped him. They just thought he was a regular teenage boy."
Deborah called Coral Springs Police, who put out an alert on Twitter and Facebook. The result was overwhelming…
Lynne Martzall, Coral Springs Police: "The initial reach was 33,000 people in less than an hour. The overall reach was over 188,000."
Over the course of the next three hours, thousands saw the posts, tweets, retweets and shares. The search was on.
Deborah Guzman: "People started calling saying, ‘Oh, I think I saw him.’"
Coral Springs Police tweeted Murphy had been seen near Creekside and Turtle Creek. Then, an alert that he was spotted eastbound on Sample Road.
Sgt. Edmond Derosa, Coral Springs Police: "The mother was distraught, the father was out actively searching for his son."
As it got dark, stormy weather moved in.
Sgt. Edmond Derosa: "We definitely were concerned for him because, obviously, it was a high traffic area as well and it limits people’s visibility."
To get more people involved in the search, Coral Springs PD also activated a geo-fence in a two mile radius around Murphy’s house.
Lynne Martzall: "If you were to drive through that fence that we have set up on Facebook on a map, it would automatically target your mobile device."
Just another weapon in their online arsenal.
Lynne Martzall: "Five-hundred and five people who were not followers of our page received it within that first few minutes."
Nationwide, about 98 percent of law enforcement agencies utilize some form of social media in their day to day operations — everything from Amber alerts, to identifying possible suspects."
Lynne Martzall: "It’s one of the greatest advancements law enforcement has had in probably, the last 10 years. We’ve found lost dogs, we’ve actually solved crimes, we’ve been able to identify people who were guilty of check fraud or credit-card fraud…
And it’s helped locate missing kids. Murphy was found, cold and wet three and a half hours later at the intersection of Sample and Lyons Roads.
Deborah Guzman: "People were posting when I read through, ‘God bless this child,’ ‘We love this child.’ People didn’t know me or my son, but they came together and they cared."
He had wandered more than two miles from home.
Deborah Guzman: "Social media is really a powerful thing. It probably saved his life."
Lynne Martzall: "It just shows how important using technology is for finding people, to solving crime."
You can help solve crime online too. Just go to Twitter, Facebook or Instagram to see what your local police departments are posting. They may need help identifying suspects or finding missing persons.
Robbin Simmons, 7News.