Canadian cops turn to YouTube for help

We’re not sure if this is a crossing the chasm moment, but reading a story about police putting surveillance videos on YouTube to solicit information is either A) proof that the small screen has come of age as an information-dissemination tool; B) just weird; C) scary; or D) all of the above.

Text accompanying the video in question asks for the public’s assistance in identifying two men who (according to the New York Times story) are wanted for questioning by Hamilton, Ontario police in an apparent murder case. Turns out YouTubers aren’t much help — “After a week, YouTube had not brought the police in Hamilton any closer to finding the men,” the story says.

The NewTeeVee-esque quote comes from Detective Sergeant Jorge Lasso of Hamilton, Ontario, who channels his own 20something kids when he seeks info from their age peers:

“They get all their news from the Internet,” he said. “I realized if I was going to communicate with this demographic, we were going to have to go that way.”