This morning, the social web has been out in force, listening to police scanners and tweeting about the Watertown manhunt for Dzhokhar Tsarnaev — complicating operations on the ground in Massachusetts.
Late last night, Twitter lit up with breaking updates on the MIT standoff in which Tsarnaev’s brother Tamerlan was killed — by some accounts, accidentally run down by his own brother in the ensuing chaos.
But as mainstream news sources failed to cover the near apprehension of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev and his now-deceased brother, people turned to the social web and the site Broadcastify carried live Boston police scanner updates.
In a dearth of news updates, Twitter was the best source for up-to-the-minute updates from Watertown, and police scanner updates were heavily retweeted through the night and into the morning.
As of now, many Twitter users report police scanners in Boston have “gone dark,” and heavy interest in streaming services may be to blame.
But as social media users attempt to follow police chatter on open channels, Boston Police and other authorities have urged locals to stop tweeting the locations of SWAT teams and active operations. Pictures as well — one with SWAT officers perched on a roof in Watertown — are said to pose a danger to law enforcement officers.
Several prominent accounts have urged Twitter users to exercise caution when it comes to the police scanner updates of the potential location of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev:
#Watertown : Don’t tweet names of streets or live tweet police actions. Suspect may have mobile access and definitely has explosives.
— Anonymous (@YourAnonNews) April 19, 2013
#MediaAlert : WARNING: Do Not Compromise Officer Safety by Broadcasting Tactical Positions of Homes Being Searched.
— Boston Police Dept. (@Boston_Police) April 19, 2013
UPDATE: Boston Police are asking social media users not to post information they hear on police frequencies/scanner channels.
— CBS News (@CBSNews) April 19, 2013
Boston Police to Twitter: Stop making up fake Twitter accounts, stop tweeting our scanner, stop telling people where we’re going.
— Derek Thompson (@DKThomp) April 19, 2013