Message Board as Drug Police

Should anonymous comments on a message board about crime at a particular address be the basis for police to begin investigating suspected criminal activity? Would they provide "reasonable suspicion" for officers approaching that address to perform a temporary detention and "pat-frisk" of individuals found near the property?

Those are the questions that come to mind on reading today's New York Times story on a Brooklyn message board, bayridgetalk.com, that apparently alerted police to drug sales in a Bay Ridge house and led to a raid there.

Reporter Michael Wilson writes:

As descriptions of crack houses go, the ones the bloggers gave of the homes on 93rd Street were hardly novel, with stories of addicts slumped on the steps outside and cars coming and going at all hours. Men inside chased strangers away, neighbors said, waving sticks and making threats while the rest of the street peered out behind drawn blinds.

But peering turned to blogging, and blogging turned to action, as neighbors started filing complaints with the 68th Precinct station house and attending Community Board 10 meetings and generally making noise until a narcotics investigation began, leading to the arrests.

“At the end of the day, it was about putting aside anonymity, putting aside the HTML and physically showing up,” said Jason Miller, 37, the pet shop owner, better known to many as PetShopBoy, his login name on BayRidgeTalk.com.

The forum has a long thread on the bust up right now.  From the sound of it, this wasn't just a quick or casual reference to suspected criminal behavior but rather a years-long effort to get police action to deal with some folks who are alleged to have been behaving in a pretty obnoxious way.