Don't post tips about missing Ont. woman to Facebook: police

When Jessica Lloyd disappeared last week, friends and family turned first to the police.

Then they turned to Facebook, starting the "FIND Jessica Elizabeth Lloyd" group, posting pictures of the 27-year-old green-eyed brunette and asking people to call police in Belleville, Ontario, to report any information that may help investigators.

By Tuesday afternoon, more than 35,000 people had joined the group and were posting their prayers, love and encouragement.

However, police are concerned relevant information about the case could be posted on the Internet rather than being communicated to authorities and have taken the rare step of speaking out about the site.

Belleville police deputy Chief Paul Vandegraaf told the Belleville Intelligencer this week Facebook is "a double-edged sword."

"It is wonderful how quickly this information got out," he said.

"The picture and the description...it's amazing how fast that got around the province. The other angle, though, is that it's gotten so big that nobody is validating the information on that and we're not adding any of our information, obviously, so we're cautioning people about what they read, what they believe and what they post."

Belleville police Sgt. Julie Forestell said in an interview Tuesday, that people should report facts about the case to the official police tip line or Crime Stoppers — not to Facebook.

"My perception of Facebook is the group is designed to show support and words of encouragement towards the family," she said. "From what I've read on there...that's the flavour that they're pushing."

Forestell said the group's administrators simply don't have the time to manage all the information flowing onto the group's Facebook wall or discussion forum.

Lloyd's family reported her missing January 29, after she didn't show up for work. Helicopter and ground searches near her Belleville home, about 180 kilometres northeast of Toronto, turned up nothing. She was last heard from late on January 28. Friends said they found her purse and eyeglasses in her apartment.

Lloyd's concerned friends are not alone in creating a group aimed at helping to solve a missing person or murder case. From groups created to find relatives missing after the Haiti earthquake last month to a group created to help find eight-year-old Ontario girl Victoria Stafford, who's body was found last summer — Facebook has become a pillar of support for friends and families of loved ones.

But it comes at a price, said Rob Gordon, director of criminology at Simon Fraser University in British Columbia.

"As a general rule using Facebook is an astonishing thing for people to do because they are demolishing any privacy they think they might have around themselves and their lives," he said. "That information is available to all manner of individuals."

From a police perspective, Gordon said Facebook simply poses issues of quality control.

Police phone lines are sifted by people who can quickly determine whether there is substance to a tip by cross-referencing it with information they have already collected.

"They can very quickly sort the wheat from the chaff," he said. "You can't do that on Facebook. (Police) will get overwhelmed with information."

Gordon said posting words of support are fine, but posting any information about the case will do more harm than good.

"Do not post it on the Internet because it may confuse rather than assist — and it may inform the person responsible."

A post in the discussion forum of the Lloyd group aimed at all members carries a similar warning: "All pertinent information is included under the 'info' section of this page — anything other than that is just assumptions and speculation which can be harmful to the police investigation. Please do not post any assumptions pertaining to Jessica's disappearance."