UK Police Told To Use Wikipedia When Preparing For Court

Half-pint HAL tips news of UK prosecution lawyers who are instructing police to study information on Wikipedia when preparing to give expert testimony in court. "Mike Finn, a weaponry specialist and expert witness in more than 100 cases, told industry magazine Police Review: 'There was one case in a Midlands force where police officers asked me to write a report about a martial art weapon. The material they gave me had been printed out from Wikipedia. The officer in charge told me he was advised by the CPS to use the website to find out about the weapon and he was about to present it in court. I looked at the information and some of it had substance and some of it was completely made up.' Mr. Finn, a former Metropolitan Police and City of London officer and Home Office adviser, added that he has heard of at least three other cases where officers from around the country have been advised by the CPS to look up evidence on Wikipedia."

CPS?

[arth1]

Is CPS such a common abbreviation that every reader is expected to know what it stands for?

Re:They would be better off using snopes.com.

[Strilanc]

Snopes posted a couple of purposefully incorrect things once, in order to prove a point about not blindly trusting people. The fake stories backfired (or worked, depending on your view) and became real urban legends. Hilarious.

Surprising?

[frozentier]

Considering the fact that lawyers use MySpace and facebook to gather evidence, why should this be a surprise? I think Wikipedia is generally a good source for facts. However, I think anyone who uses the internet AT ALL for important facts is very foolish. I could get a personalized URL, make up a page full of total nonsense, and there's going to be someone out there citing it as gospel, so to speak. First step in getting facts you can depend on: Get off the internet and crack open a book. Stop being LAZY, because looking up stuff on the internet is EASY.

I don't see what the big deal is

[portforward]

There is lots of very useful information on the internet. Martial Arts weapons are a perfectly good example of finding high-quality, even admissable evidence. There is a Youtube series devoted for researching just such a topic. Feel free to search for "Ask a Ninja".

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Re:Wikipedia as a source of truth?

[houstonbofh]

First, I am not disagreeing with you. I am just pointing out that we are having a discussion on an article most of us have not read. That is the problem. How many times are goofy comments here responded to with "Read the article?" It used to be that facts were born out by research, and now it is by consensus. (Like "The world is flat...") And the Wikipedia issue is just more of this in another place. Read the wiki, and do not check the sources...

And no I did not read the article. It was locked behind a fee. It does sound interesting, however.

Re:Heh...

[tg123]

Hey who modded this as funny it should be insightful.

Police often exaggerate in court.

http://oklahomacriminaldefense.blogspot.com/2008/08/police-lying-or-testilying-and.html [blogspot.com]

Wish I had mod points ..................

Re:All sources should be suspect

[themeparkphoto]

Here's my Wikipedia story: Several years ago, while reading the entry for my Alma Mater, I decided to add my name to the list of notable alumni. (I'm not notable.) About a year later, when I decided to google my name and was shocked to see myself at my University's website on a page they had enumerating their famous alumni! That's right--my college did its research on Wikipedia. I decided to write my own wikipedia entry page--which stuck!--and among other references linked back to my University's page showing that I was a notable alumni. (I've written a number of books, so I was able to have a number of references that looked legit enough that my page wasn't deleted.) Last year, while reading the glossy brochure for my University, there was my name on a page that talked about all the 'famous' people that had graduated there. My little Wikipedia vandalism had come full circle and became the truth! I do not trust Wikipedia, and use this as an example to prove how bad an idea it is.

Re:Citations are there for a reason

[selven]

No, you wait for the news to copy from your altered article and use that for citations.