Tweets help T bust perv

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T nabs perv after Herald reports on rider’s Tweets
Richard Weir By Richard Weir
Saturday, August 7, 2010 - Updated 11 hours ago

Transit Police this morning announced the arrests of two men accused of lewd acts on subways and trolleys, including a man whose photograph was instantly broadcast on Twitter this week, prompting the MBTA to adopt the social media as a crime-fighting tool.

Today’s Herald features MBTA General Manager Richard Davey saying “we love the idea" after he was alerted yesterday by the Herald to a passenger’s Tweets about the alleged perv.

He told the Herald the quick actions on Thursday by an alert Twittering Red Line rider, who also snapped a cell phone photo of the suspect, helped demonstrate the value of getting real time information from T passengers.

Davey was spurred to have Transit Police launch a systemwide Twitter account, and will hold a press conference today at noon at Hynes Station about “the expanded use of Twitter and other social media to fight crime on the T.”

T spokesman Joe Pesaturo said this morning that transit cops have arrested Lawrence Maguire, 59, of Dorchester, identified as the man who was photographed exposing and fondling himself by a 29-year-old legal clerk, Nay Kuhn, who broadcast a Tweet alert about the suspect, along with his picture, while riding on the inbound train Thursday. He was charged with open and gross conduct.

The agency also said they have nabbed another man, identified as John A. Beyers, 64, of Brighton, who was photographed by a woman, and caught on surveillance cameras, after allegedly committing repeated indecent acts at the Green Lines Reservoir station last month.

SEE ALSO:

T rider uses Twitter to alert cops to perv
Tweet tip of the iceberg

http://bostonherald.com/news/regional/view/20100807t_rider_uses_twitter_to_alert_cops_to_perv_tweet_tip_of_the_iceberg/
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