Should the police be involved in online murders announcements?

Tuesday 8th November 2007, seven schoolchildren and their principal were killed when a student opened fire in a town near Helsinki, in the deadliest shooting in Finland's history. The gunman shot himself in the head and died later in hospital.

The 18-year-old student, identified by police as Pekka-Eric Auvinen, started shooting with a handgun during lessons yesterday at the Jokela secondary school in Tuusula, killing five boys and two girls as well as the principal, Helena Kalmi, police said at a news conference.

Two hours before police learned of the shootings, the gunman posted a warning with pictures of the campus and an armed man on YouTube, an online video service of Google Inc., officials said.

Ten children were treated for minor injuries at Hyvinkaeae hospital in a town near the school, Ulla Keraenen, a senior surgeon there, said in a telephone interview. None of the children had been shot, she added.

Tuusula is a town of about 35,000 people 30 kilometers (19 miles) north of the capital.

Rescue Crews

Police were called to the school at 11:43 a.m. local time yesterday. Officers were on the scene 11 minutes later and tried to talk to the gunman, who fired one shot at them without hitting anyone. Rescue crews had to evacuate pupils, teachers and other school workers through the windows.

Searchers found the attacker injured shortly after 3 p.m., according to the Tuusula municipality Web site. The gunman and most of his victims were found in the lower lobby of the building, police said. (bloomberg.com)

The question coming after this is : Should the police be involved ahead of the act in cases like this? We have to keep in mind that we are in a growing trend (recall the case in Virginia Tech)

It is sure, the police can't listen to all desperate teenagers of the word who post videos of them on Youtube. It would cost too much employees, time and money.

On the other hand, things have to change. Until this happens again. I don't have any ideas about what is technologically possible. But it seems to me that Youtube have a surveillance system. They may apply it to the videos containing dark messages and they may transfer it to the police. So maybe they could act on time.