The Hanover Police department acknowledged their use of the Green Book as a tool for tracking down suspected lawbreakers in the undergraduate student body.
While nationwide police departments have begun using Facebook.com, a popular online social network, to collect information about suspects, Hanover Police uses the College's publication to gather similar information.
"We maintain a collection of facebooks," Hanover Police Chief Nicholas Giaccone said in reference to the Green Book, adding that the publication is "a part of an assortment of investigative tools" used by the police department to catch lawbreakers.
Giaccone explained that the Hanover Police purchases copies of the publication from the College for the purpose of profiling students.
"We try to build a composite of a suspect and the facebook is one of many tools used in creating that composite," he said, referring to the Green Book.
Giaccone said Hanover Police had compared camera stills of lawbreakers committing a crime to pictures found in the Green Book in order to catch suspects.
Giaccone, however, declined to describe specific instances in which Hanover Police had used the Green Book to track down a suspect.
According to Giaccone the police department has referred to the Green Book as "the facebook" for several years, which has generated confusion since the introduction of Facebook.com in 2004.
This confusion has caused some students to postulate that Hanover Police use Facebook.com to gather information on undergraduates. One student, Mandy Lobel '09, suspected the police had used Facebook.com to identify her after she successfully evaded several officers while rushing the football field during the Homecoming game last term.
Lobel explained that she had worn a mask while rushing the field, and then ran out of the stadium, removed the mask and her sweatshirt to avoid detection and returned to watch the rest of the game.
"I figured that if I took the mask off outside the stadium, they wouldn't be able to pick me out of the crowd," Lobel said.
After the incident, Lobel added no indication on her Facebook.com profile that she had participated in rushing the field, even ignoring an invitation to join the "I Rushed the 2005 Homecoming Game" Facebook.com group.
"I thought it was all good," Lobel said. "For three or four weeks nobody said anything to me. Then I got a blitz from H-Po asking if I would have a meeting with them."
At the meeting, officers charged Lobel with illegal trespass for rushing the field. At that time, she confronted officers about the role of Facebook.com in her arrest.
"I asked them directly if they used Facebook to catch me, and they said yes," Lobel said.
Lobel's story emphasizes the miscommunication students have with Hanover Police concerning Facebook.com and the College's Green Book.
However, stories like Lobel's actually involving Facebook.com are becoming increasingly common on college campuses across the country as more and more law enforcement officials are using Facebook.com to monitor the illegal activities of students. In one extreme case, a student at Fisher College was expelled last October for his affiliation with a Facebook.com group that criticized a campus security officer.
College Proctor Harry Kinne denied using Facebook.com to monitor students, but refused to rule out the possibility of doing so in the future.
"I wouldn't say we'd never use it. We have not done that up to this point. But it is public info," Kinne said. "We'd use Facebook if we thought there was a threat to the safety and security of the college that warranted it."
Kinne went on to warn students to be cautious of the information they post about themselves on what he called a public website.
"Anybody can use it. We'd caution people to think about personal information they put on the site [for that reason]," Kinne said.
Correction Appended
For the record: An article on Friday ("Police use Facebook to make arrests," Feb. 3) incorrectly attributed Facebook.com as a source used by Hanover Police to track undergraduate suspects. An interview between Hanover Police Chief Nicholas Giaccone and The Dartmouth led to confusion between the terms "facebook," and the College's annual Green Book, a compilation of photographs and identifying information for freshmen students. Giaccone said his department has used the term "facebook" to describe the Green Book for several years -- he was unaware of the popular student website, which led to confusion in the interview.
