Arlington police: Social media threats ‘will land you in jail’

When a student threatens on social media to blow up a school, it doesn’t take much for police to find the culprit.

“It may take a day or two,” said Lt. Chris Cook, an Arlington police spokesman, “but we’ll find you.”

Still, the often anonymous threats are what Cook calls “resource-intensive” problems.

They require an increased police presence at schools and force investigations of matters that may have no credibility at all — and are often considered by suspects to be jokes, Cook said.

Arlington police posted a minutelong video on their Facebook page Wednesday with a clear message to students:

“Using social media to make threats is a serious crime with serious consequences. Terroristic threat is a felony and will land you in jail!”

The video, which is part of the Police Department’s “WeTakeThisSeriously” social media campaign, isn’t exaggerating: In November, three students were arrested and accused of making threats toward Bowie High School and Sam Houston High School.

Each student, as the video warns, was charged with making a terroristic threat.

“We don’t want to arrest teens,” officer Richard Morrison tells parents in another video released this month, “but our hands are forced when a public safety response occurs that causes significant community fear and alarm.”

Arlington police haven’t arrested a student for social media threats since the November incidents.

But on Wednesday, a Bowie student was found with an unloaded gun at the school, district spokeswoman Leslie Johnston said. The student didn’t make a threat, and the school police officer seized the gun.

In December, a Nichols Junior High student was arrested, accused of telling another student he was going to blow up the school. The boy later told police he was joking.

With the two videos, “we just wanted to get the conversation going again,” Cook said.

Each high school has scheduled presentations of the videos by grade level, Johnston said

“A lot of times these kids think [the threats are] just a joke, or they’re trying to get a day out of school,” Cook said. “It’s a felony and it can really follow you for a long time.”

The first threat in November was a Twitter photo of a black handgun with the caption: “@12 be readie for bowie to hav a schoo shootin.”

An Arlington detective contacted Twitter, which provided the IP address and cellphone number of the account. The detective traced to account to Shalaria Jones, 17, who was arrested the next day.

Later that week, another student threatened Bowie on Kik, an instant message app.

“Heard yal were suppoed to have a shooting but since that never happened ill make sure it does,” one of the messages read.

The student also threatened to bomb the school.

Kik supplied police with the account’s information and police traced the threats to a 15-year-old student, who was arrested and handed over to juvenile authorities.

Cook said social media websites have “law enforcement liaisons” who work with investigators to make account information available. Phone companies also cooperate with police to identify IP addresses.

Cook said detectives can get access to the information they need “in a matter of hours now.”

Investigating the source of a threat is often more manageable than its impact.

After the first threat at Bowie, more than 200 students walked out of class, fearing a shooting, Cook said. Police sent extra officers to the school while they investigated.

“We have to take every single threat as if it’s really going to happen,” Cook said. “Just because we see a threat, we can’t assume someone is joking.”

This story was originally published February 17, 2016 at 3:00 PM with the headline "Arlington police: Social media threats ‘will land you in jail’."