(KGTV) -- Reckless driving. Smoking a pipe. Bragging about using drugs in front of kids. It's social media gone bad.
10News uncovered videos of San Diegans broadcasting bad behavior live on the social media app Periscope. Why don’t police arrest these people? It’s not that simple.
“The greatest challenge is when you look at this, immediately we go to, oh they are smoking marijuana, but we really don’t know that,” said Kevin LaChapelle, a professor of criminal justice and a former El Cajon police officer.
10News showed LaChapelle a video where two teens appear to smoke weed with toddlers in the room.
“That could be tobacco product. You really don’t know what they are smoking,” LaChapelle said.
“If you happen to go to a radio call of noise and they answer the door and you smell marijuana and you see them with a kid in there that’s a whole another story. Then you have probable cause to conduct an investigation,” he said.
Police are more apt to go after people in these videos if there is a clear crime, such as abuse, assault or another felony, or if they can identify the people.
“Usually what happens is someone actually says, look at this video, and by the way, I know who they are and here’s where they live. And there’s a likelihood that police are going to pay them a visit," LaChapelle said. “They probably wouldn’t go make an arrest if it’s a misdemeanor. They would go seek a complaint with the district attorney’s office."
