Facebook notifications of death tend to happen among kin and friends, and the battle over whether Facebook is an appropriate means of official communication (such as serving a summons or attempting to collect on a debt) has been a constant matter of dispute — but one grieving mother says that local police attempted to contact her about her son’s passing through the social network instead of through the traditional in-person officer visit.
What’s worse is that the Facebook notification of death was made regarding her son through Facebook’s private messaging service. As many of us have learned, too often the “Other” box can withhold important messages, ones that may not be from a direct Facebook “friend,” but are ones you’d like nonetheless to receive — and Anna Lamb-Creasey says police in Clayton County, Georgia, failed in an attempt to get the important message to her because it was routed to the “Other” box.
Furthermore, the Facebook notification of death came from the account of someone named “Misty Hancock,” with a profile pic of rapper T.I. Even after Lamb-Creasey (at that point desperately searching her son Rickie) received the message, she disregarded it given its lack of apparent credentials and dismissed it as fake.
Sadly, the Facebook notification of Rickie’s fatal accident went undiscovered for several weeks — the 30-year-old man was killed on January 24, and Lamb-Creasy says she is very upset further efforts to locate her were not employed:
“They told me that they did the best that they can do. But I’m not sure about that … If they can track a criminal down, they couldn’t track me down? They could have done better. I’ve been on my job 13 years. They could have found me.”
Do you think a Facebook notification of death, particularly to a parent, should be permissible — or will technology never replace the in-person visit from a police officer?
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