Cops make Facebook plea for customers to stop calling alleged drug dealer's phone
Technically Incorrect: Police in Ohio are frustrated that locals keep calling the phone of an alleged drug dealer they've arrested to ask for drugs. They say it's interfering with their investigation.
Technically Incorrect offers a slightly twisted take on the tech that's taken over our lives.
A picture of the phone released by police.
Don't think that technology makes everything easier for the authorities.
After all, they might not know how to even get into the phone of someone they've arrested.
Then there's the problem currently being experienced by the police in Alliance, Ohio.
They arrested Steve Notman for alleged drug dealing. They say that he's allowed them to go through his phone.
However, as a post to the police department's Facebook account makes clear, there is a problem.
"PLEASE STOP CALLING Steve Notman's cell phone," the post begins. "He was arrested tonight by SIU detectives...again...for ALLEGEDLY (on video) selling crystal meth here in Alliance."
Are people calling because they're worried about Notman? Not quite, say the police.
Instead: "We have his phone and are trying to read all your texts requesting drugs and going through all of his contacts (with his permission) but you keep calling and texting and it's really annoying."
So it's alleged customers who are giving the police earache.
In order to gain a little peace, the post continues: "First of all, he is all out of drugs for tonight. Secondly you don't need to call -- we will come to you soon enough. Oh, and his ringtone is terrible! Thank you so much for your patience."
There's a certain jocular strain that runs through this post that one wonders how serious it is. The Alliance Police Department didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.
Most commenters on Facebook seems to have enjoyed the police's expression of lively spirit. One even wondered whether Notman's ringtone was "I Fought The Law And The Law Won."
It is, in its way, a new twist on the notion of using social media to demonstrate that the police don't always lose their humor in the course of their duties.
Who could possibly forget the Australian police department that tweeted a stoner's to-do list?
However, I wonder what Notman's lawyer -- should he avail himself of one -- might think of the police's transparency.