Rate My Cop

[linuxwrangler]

News had an item on ratemycop.com (http://www.ratemycop.com/) the other evening. The officers they interviewed were, ahem, unimpressed. OK, pissed. Some wanted to sue to have it taken down (though it was noted that this was unlikely - first amendment and all).

Just thought it would be discussion fodder here - that is if the ratemycop.com site stops breaking down.

 

[brandon]

Looks like the site has been removed.

 

[RolnCode3]

I just typed it in and there's a response from the page. It was working about 3 days ago when I first heard about it (before it was in the news). I think it's been overwhelmed with hits, though, and doesn't have the bandwidth needed. That's most likely why it's down.

And, yes, we know it's a 1st amendment issue - there is no private information there and everything was gathered from FOIA requests and public information. That's the whole point, to protect against the government interfering with speech the government (or in this case, its agents) find offensive.

 

[franka00213]

This just dont look like a very good idea! It looks like it not only lists officers that have a comment about them but all the officers in the department. This in a way tells possiably how many officers are in the department. I have family in law enforcement and there names are on the site for Sac Pd, no comments for them though but they are there. This makes my whole family feel uneasy. You dont no what people can do with this type of info now days, im sure lots of people didnt even no you can get this info about officers till now.
I will be happy to see it go if it ever does!! ::ass the petition this way:::

 

[Utah_Viper]

The site was on the front page of digg.com today. That being said the site got THOUSANDS of hits and now looks like its dead. I don't think its been shut down, just exceeded the bandwidth allowed by the provider.

 

[brandon]

That site would be more useful if it actually offered real reviews of officers instead of single sentence rants by people who are upset they got a speeding ticket. Most of the people posting reviews don't even bother using their real name, so how can we expect to take their stories seriously? It just seems to be yet another website setup for pot smoking teenagers to anonymously bash law enforcement personnel. Anyway it will be interesting to see how this whole thing plays out. Apparently many agencies are quite upset with this website because it posts full names of officers, and have been trying to shut it down.

 

[ScannerDude244]

Took one day

GoDaddy Silences Police-Watchdog Site RateMyCop.com

A new web service that lets users rate and comment on the uniformed police officers in their community is scrambling to restore service Tuesday, after hosting company GoDaddy unceremonious pulled-the-plug on the site in the wake of outrage from criticism-leery cops.

http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2008/03/godaddy-silence.html

 

[hoser147]

Its up and Running now. Just picked 3 from the list at the right actually suprised that the first one 5 stars great officer, #2 had some attitude comments but still rated very well 4 stars the 3rd not so good 2 stars and Idiot comments................Hoser

 

[NewbieScoobie]

Down again.

 

[mtindor]

It appears to be hosted on a shared hosting server (one that is likely going to limit bandwidth after x amount of bandwidth and quite possibly also limit the amount of CPU resources the site is allowed ot take up).

I anticipate the site being down again in the future and having to be moved. It's running on Joomla or one of its variants - which is a piece of crap application if you are trying to server large volumes of content. It just isn't robust.

And more importantly, the novelty of this will wear off - but perhaps not before even the 'threat' of lawsuits causes them to buckle. I can see where problems can easily arise, especially in cases where they end up having information about undercover individuals - I mean they will have to rely upon the agencies to update them on a regular basis with their personnel roster - and a person who currently is not undercover may become and undercover officer, and suddenly the agency would have to notify the website of those changes.

The agency does not have any obligation to update the website people - and knowing that, I can't believe that they really have that many agencies who have given them information. If they have because of FOI requirements, then it's going to be a burden on the site operators to make sure that information stays up to date - because if they have data on there that is not accurate, they'll be a lawsuit in no time.

Lastly - most of the time nothing good can be gained by publically attempting to discredit an officer on a site like that. The posters are 'anonymous' - If they are truly anonymous (are not required to provide any identifiable information before posting and are using public hotspots where it would be impossible to track the poster down), then that'll get the site into a heap of trouble of people are slandering an officer and proof cannot be provided.

It's a waste of their time - I predict it will last a short time now that it is getting media coverage. Most hosts are n ot going to want to deal with the complaints. And those who are willing to deal with the complaints, excessive resource usage, etc. are going to charge an arm and a leg for it.

Mike

 

[cristisphoto]

Dangerous....

If One Truly indeed has a complaint to lodge then they can do so with that particular department, or community organization.
I see little to no good to ranting on some website.
And the Full names being listed on a website...
Besides, what about the privacy of these officers???
I believe they have rights as well...
Like the right to not having their info being open to individuals who would harm them or their families...
And if you think I'm exaggerating then you are EXTREMLEY naive
In conclusion this site can be rather dangerous...
Crista