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    Chicago Police Use Google To Arrest Fugitive

    Police credit Google, intuition in fugitive arrest via the AP reports the Chicago police used Google to help arrest Ronnell Jones. The AP reports Ronnell Jones didn’t initially give his real name to the police but when he was going through the booking procedure he gave the police his real name and date of birthday. […]

    Google JailPolice credit Google, intuition in fugitive arrest via the AP reports the Chicago police used Google to help arrest Ronnell Jones.

    The AP reports Ronnell Jones didn’t initially give his real name to the police but when he was going through the booking procedure he gave the police his real name and date of birthday.

    The police used Google to search his name and date of birthday and found an episode from America’s Most Wanted where he disguising himself as a woman. Here is the episode description on America’s Most Wanted. They say he was wanted for First Degree Robbery in Yonkers, New York. Chicago police called Yonkers police and verified his identity based on finger prints. This episode was from March, 9 2012, where detectives were seeking him out not just for robbery but also for two alleged murders and multiple assaults

    Here is the description from the show:

    Police say what started as a robbery quickly turned into a bloodbath in Yonkers, N.Y. Police and U.S. Marshals were on the hunt for Ronnell Jones who was being sought for two murders and multiple assaults, including one on a small child. Thankfully, after nearly two years on the run, Jones was arrested during a routine traffic stop in Chicago.

    Gang Enforcement Commander Kevin Ryan said about Google, “we use it just like everyone else.”


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    About the Author

    Barry Schwartz

    Barry Schwartz is a technologist and a Contributing Editor to Search Engine Land and a member of the programming team for SMX events. He owns RustyBrick, a NY based web consulting firm. He also runs Search Engine Roundtable, a popular search blog on very advanced SEM topics.

    In 2019, Barry was awarded the Outstanding Community Services Award from Search Engine Land, in 2018 he was awarded the US Search Awards the "US Search Personality Of The Year," you can learn more over here and in 2023 he was listed as a top 50 most influential PPCer by Marketing O'Clock.

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