Breaking news in Dallas County

By: Sara Crouse

High school students have a tendency to resist all things law enforcement related. Whether it’s because they are breaking the law or just feel the cops are particularly too noisy, teenagers seem to avoid law enforcement. Just how do the cops get young adults to speak about the things corrupting today’s youth?

Law enforcement officials are required to seek out breaking news and investigate, much like reporters. However, it is difficult for law enforcement to know all the goes on in a city, especially the hidden activities of youth. Yet, officials may have found a new reporting tactic, a technique known very well to high school students, called text messaging.

High school students in Dallas County, Iowa now have the option to send a text message to an anonymous hot line about issues like underage age drinking and partying. The technique has proven helpful in many other counties and states across the country. Dallas County still has yet to receive its first text message about illegal activities, but they hope the new technique will be less evasive than phone calls to report.

It seems that anonymous text messages to the police about the illegal doings of your neighbors may tend to be a bit far fetched, but this is the 21st Century. Privacy is little and hard to find in American. Next we may be convicting crimes based on text message responses, but that is a whole different issue in itself.