Community Policing with Facebook?

I just read in Wired where the University of North Texas has teamed up with TRACE to use Facebook as a place to report stolen goods and check on used items students want to buy to see if they are in the “stolen” database.

At first this seem frightening to me that people would consider using a social networking program to report stolen goods and turn in thieves. It definitely felt like an abuse of it and goes against the whole idea of a “social” space. But does it? When I thought about it, I guess I’d like to have people know I had something stolen and if someone is selling a stolen item listed in the database here, the thief could get caught and property recovered. That’s a good thing, right? So it seems people have found a new way to use interactive media in a way that wasn’t intended. I find it fascinating to watch the re-appropriation of media.