NYPD takes on social media gangsters

NEW YORK (AFP) - The New York Police Department is deploying a surge of detectives to patrol an increasingly mean new beat: Facebook and other social networks.

Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said Tuesday that he's doubling the number of detectives assigned to combating local teen gangs and that increased surveillance of social networks will be a major part of the strategy.

The gangs under scrutiny are not the big, established outfits like the Bloods and Crips, which are well known around the United States, but neighborhood groups fighting over loyalties often to just one part of a housing project or other limited turf.

"Under a program we've named Operation Crew Cut, the Department intends to double the size of its Gang Division from approximately 150 detectives to 300 phased in over a period of time," Mr Kelly said in prepared remarks to a police conference in San Diego, California.