Phones help police catch reckless riders in two separate incidents

Two motorcyclists — one in Georgia and the other in Utah — initially managed to outrun police in recent incidents, but were eventually caught because of their phones.

According to local news sources, police made an arrest in Clayton County, Georgia after a detective traced public social media posts and vehicle registrations to a suspect. A rider on a new Triumph Street Triple RS (misidentified as a “Triple Street” in the video below) slipped away from police after a chase across two counties.

Only one 2022 Street Triple RS was registered in the area, so a detective working the case looked for social media accounts under that owner’s name. The rider had posted TikTok and YouTube videos of himself running from police, which led to 12 warrants and a confession… after being shown his own videos.

As social media continues to grow, expect to see more digital detective work in cases like these. Posting videos of breaking the law to platforms like YouTube, Facebook, TikTok, and Instagram is hardly a new trend, but law enforcement seems to be more proactive in getting warrants and arrests based on these posts.

In the Utah case, a highway patrol trooper reported a rider speeding on a red Ducati Panigale V4. The rider was clocked at 139 mph and left the trooper in his dust, which seemingly ended the pursuit. Apparently thinking that he had lost the police aboard one of the fastest street-legal vehicles on the road, the rider pulled over to use his phone. He didn’t realize that the Utah Highway Patrol had dispatched a helicopter, and a trooper quickly caught up with him. The arrested rider turned out to be a teenager. As for the Ducati, it belonged to his father.

I wonder what that phone call sounded like.