WELCOME

Welcome to Running Toward Evil, where we discuss and investigate true crime in a safe and respectful environment. As a community, we are committed to raising awareness about unsolved crimes, including murder, and to hold law enforcement accountable for transparency in their investigations. Our goal is to help bring closure and justice to the families and victims affected by these crimes and honor the police officers who investigate these crimes and occasionally pay a great price. Join us on this journey as we work towards making a positive impact in the true crime world.

My
Story

Getting to Know Your Host

Steve DeBoard is a retired Indianapolis Policeman and Homicide Detective. After retiring he went back to school to finish what he started, a college degree. Steve finished a Master's degree, worked on a Ph.D in Public Safety Leadership, and taught college courses in Criminal Justice and Behavioral Research Methods to undergraduate and graduate students.

This podcast will discuss the concept of law enforcement officers and courageous citizens who run toward evil, and investigate murder, mayhem, and mystery while others run the other way.

The Running Toward Evil podcast deals with the concept of law enforcement officers who run towards murder, mysteries, and mayhem while others run away from it. If you have wondered what it is about violent cases that cause such devotion to duty and community, then you have found a home.

The Use of Crowd Sourcing to Help Police Solve Murders

Can crowdsourcing be used effectively to help the police?

Johnny Nhan, a professor of Criminal Justice and some other fellow colleagues, witnessed the chaos in the aftermath of the Boston Marathon bombing in 2013 and realized there needed to be some sort of citizen-police relationship between civilians and the police in an effort to protect the public and work effectively. Professor Nhan stated, “Crowdsourcing is the idea of using the collective knowledge, collective resources of everybody.” It is a way to passively help the police and leave the heavy work to them. This resource help the police develop quite a bit of information about the bomb and other aspects of the investigation, including a call about a suspect in a covered boat at someone's home.

CrimeCon is a unique organization for the True Crime citizen sleuths that hold yearly conventions around the United States with displays on current crime fighting technology, latest in TV shows of the true crime variety and many guest speakers. They also hold seminars that is used to crowdsource to see what information is available on various unsolved murders. The attendees, generally sincere citizen-sleuths, want to be involved in these investigations to provide feedback and possibly know something they previously did not. I spoke at this type of seminar as a guest speaker at the very first convention held in Indianapolis, Indiana a few years ago and found it to be a great experience. People from across the country attended and were made to feel that there opinions and information counted.

https://www.crimecon.com/

Another story of the use of crowdsourcing began when an 18 year old female body was found in Canada. The victim had been with a friend earlier that day, but then disappeared. It became a major story and brought together citizen sleuths to help with providing information. An astute Facebook sleuth saw a picture that the victims friend posted on Facebook wearing a belt that looked like it could have made the marks on the victim. Turned out to be the weapon and the killer confessed.