Dallas Blog

The "UNT art photography student" behind the Denton Police Department's waaaaay-unofficial Twitter page is probably having a big ol' giggle fit right about now. Because, see, after Unfair Park pointed out the page yesterday -- which uses TwitPic to send followers mug shots the Denton PD loads to its online Jail Custody Report -- the sucker got plenty of folks' attention. Like, oh, KRLD-AM (1080), which just ran a piece about the page and the department's raised eyebrows concerning its existence. Also very interested: Channels 5 and 11, who Denton police spokesman Ryan Grelle tells Unfair Park are "coming up here" today after having read the original item.

"Thanks a lot," he says, laughing. "Must be a slow news day."

Well, yes and no. Because the novelty's now actual news: Grelle tells Unfair Park that Denton's city attorneys are trying to figure out how to best deal with the site, which bears the Denton Police Department's moniker but isn't at all sanctioned by the department. Grelle says he's worried whoever's behind the site "could put something horrendous on there and give the department a black eye." (Which seems doubtful -- that isn't the point of the page, which exists to point "out the amount of public info out there," according to the bio.) He's not sure how far the legal team's gotten into the issue or how they'll resolve the matter -- maybe by taking the photos off the official page or by getting the UNT student to change the Twitter account name.

"We just want to make people aware this isn't our Web site," Grelle says. "Granted, you can pull the information from our Web site, but we want people to know this isn't our Web site. He's got our patch on it, and no one approved of that, so, ya know ... It's just one of those things."