Microblogging in times of emergency!

Police are starting to use microblogging, especially the well known microblogging site known as Twitter, as an alert tool. We all heard about the uses of technology during the September 11th tragedy as people tried to find love ones, reconnect with others, and even find lost pets. But even during peaceful times, microblogging can be a useful tool for easily alerting and communicating. Neighborhood watch programs are common in most suburban settings; imagine how much easier it would be to post a warning or alert, instead of using the old phone tree. Last year when my house got broken into, it would have been useful and beneficial for all of my neighbors if I could have tweeted to 'watch out and lock your doors tonight!' Perhaps I would have even read a neighbor's tweet warning me of the same, and avoided the whole traumatic event. For police, there is not a phone tree that they can even use to efficiently describe an abductor or escapee. Imagine a 3 year old got kidnapped--wouldn't it be great to have a group of concerned citizens already looking for your child because of that one tweet that was sent out to the group immediately? Not only could microblogging be useful for apprehending petty criminals, or even violent criminals, but microblogging is becoming a useful tool in helping the absent minded criminal who is posting his master plans in cyberspace. The complications arise when people are just plain stupid--the government official who tweeted about a secret mission in Iraq is the perfect example of what NOT to do! Microblogging can be an asset to government, law officials, and to the public when used in the right way, plain and simple.