News
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.