Social media played a huge part in identifying the Boston Marathon bombing suspects. Now, Chattanoogans are taking to social media in hopes of fighting local crime.North Chattanooga has been a hot spot for crime in recent years, and one woman who has had her house broken into 3 times, says enough is enough. Frustrated with police, she took to Facebook to try and get help from the public.Emily Goodin posted a picture to her wall on Sunday, after she says 3 black males tried to break into her house when she wasn't home. Luckily, her friend was. He got the car's make and model, and it's license plate number. By sharing it on Facebook, that's the only way I can get the word out to my neighbors and friends. A picture of the vehicle, the tag number, so that we can hopefully catch these guys who are probably in North Chattanooga doing this to other homes as well, said Emily Goodin.Emily also called police, but says her interaction with them was less than promising. So she took it upon herself to catch the criminals. That's been the difficult part. I've made several phone calls apparently the report I made was categorized as miscellaneous so that means it will not be followed up on even though we have a registered name of the vehicle, we have that person has been arrested multiple times, and that's what was frustrating, said Goodin.Emily is catching on to a recent trend in social-media crime fighting.East Ridge Neighborhood Watch created a facebook page and there's an album dedicated to vehicles associated with various crimes in the area that people should be on the lookout for.But some people say the posting to social media could make victims even more susceptible to crime. I wouldn't personally do it because I'd be scared that they would come find me and then they would murder me or something and it would be even a bigger crime, said Taylor Gibson, and UTC student.But Emily says she's sticking to social media because it's easy, fast, and could potentially reach millions of people. I got the word out to friends and they kind of took it upon themselves, other people in North Chattanooga, to also explore this. One of my facebook friends sent me a message and said, 'Hey, here's some more information on the registered owner of the vehicle.'Since Sunday's incident, Emily has installed a surveillance camera on her property. She hopes next time someone tries to break in, she can catch them in the act.By Natalie Jenereski
