WWW.LOBBYISTSOFFICESOFGRW.COM COMMENTARY | Megan Wright’s baby Lisa Irwin question-and-answer page on Facebook could do for law enforcement what Barack Obama’s presidential election strategy did for politics. For the first time ever in 2008, a presidential candidate took his campaign to win the presidency to the public — online. While other politicians had made use of the internet, the scope of Obama’s effort was a political game-changer. It’s possible Megan Wright, a potential witness in the missing baby Lisa case, will similarly change law enforcement history by taking her evidence straight to the public.
The implications of Wright’s baby Lisa question and answer page could be enormous- whether she knows anything useful about the case or not.
When a potential witness like Wright starts an independent Q and A page, she retains control over her input into the investigation. She needn’t worry about her words being accidentally misconstrued or manipulated. If anyone misquotes her, the page is there to back her up on exactly what she said, when, and in what context.
If Wright starts a trend, a curious public will no longer need to be satisfied with information the police choose to release or the newspapers publish. They will instead have an opportunity to ask questions and receive answers directly from participants in ongoing criminal investigations.
If other potential witnesses in the baby Lisa case open up similar Facebook pages, a point-counterpoint scenario could emerge where one witness’ claim is directly pit against another’s long before an investigation concludes.
Police already scrutinize social networking sites for evidence, but what makes Wright’s effort unique is the focused, public, and interactive nature of her Q and A page. It’s not far-fetched to think a guilty party might check in, leaving an Internet Protocol footprint.
Locals who stop by the page with comments may provide small clues about the people involved or the events that occurred that ultimately help police solve the crime.
For sure, there’s a lot of chaff to clear away before finding any potential seeds of enlightenment on this Facebook page, but isn’t that the case in any criminal investigation? What the page does is draw in large numbers of people, many of whom the police presumably have had no reason to question. Any one of them might inadvertently contribute a small bit of information that changes the course of the investigation.
