Philadelphia police are trying to find the culprit behind an anonymous Instagram account that aimed to identify and intimidate witnesses to violent crimes — or “expose rats,” as the culprit put it.
The account, rats215, had outed at least 30 witnesses as of Thursday night, posting police statements, testimony and photos on the photo sharing website, the Philadelphia Inquirer reports. Instagram told the newspaper it was looking into the account, and it was offline by late Thursday night.
Rats215 had almost 8,000 followers, and police are using search warrants to find the person behind the account. Authorities are especially concerned because some of the content posted is not public record, and includes information from secret grand jury proceedings. It remains unclear how the user obtained that information.
A spokesperson for the local district attorney’s office said witness intimidation is a “very serious, ongoing problem.”
The account came to light when a Philadelphia cop who was monitoring Twitter saw photos of a witness and court records from a 2012 shooting. Police traced those posts to the Instagram account, where they found statements from the victim.