Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said that their searches would be similar to those being used to spot terrorist chatter online.
"And what we're talking about is publicly available websites, chatrooms, that sort of thing," Kelly said, adding that algorithms could be used. That will enable us to use, perhaps, commonly used terms that are used by people engaged in this sort of activity," he said.
"The techniques would include cyber-searches of language that mass-casualty shooters have used in e-mails and Internet postings," Kelly said.
Kelly said intelligence is most helpful in these cases since shooters can cause multiple deaths in seconds regardless of how deft the police response.
The NYPD's counter-terrorism division released a 182-page report last year after studying 202 mass shooting incidents.
"So, we think this is another logical step," Kelly said.
If you really want a deranged gunman to pop up unexpectedly and start shooting, you don't "search" for them on the internet! That might help you find some good candidates to put under psychiatric "care," but these guys don't just grow on trees! These guys are created.
First you have to develop some "useful" connections with the mental health system, and choose some promising target individuals. Next, send in an operative disguised as a "therapist" and get the target person onto some strong drugs, just to give you that little control edge over them.
Then you plant an idea and help them develop it using "fantasy therapy" (I've looked it up - there's actually an article about it) and voila! One fine day you have a school shooter, with backup from hidden professional snipers, if you are into maximum gore. Usually someone goes in and makes sure the person who will be blamed has "shot himself" so no one will ever be the wiser.
So I think the NYPD is either just flapping their lips to look good or are hoping to create a few "unfortunate incidents" themselves. I hope their talk is just hot air. All we need is more "deranged" people admitted into the mental health system!