CHICAGO — Here are Chicago's real-life "nightcrawlers."
Like Jake Gyllenhaal's character in the 2014 thriller, there's a group of freelance reporters and photographers who make a living, or at least a pastime, listening to Chicago's overnight police scanners and rushing to crime scenes. Many of them have bigger followings on social media than crime reporters at traditional media outlets, and a few of them have nearly the number of followers as the city's official police and fire department accounts.
Here are Chicago's highest-profile independent scanner accounts, their handles, and what they do:
• Spot News (@SpotNewsonIG), 31,000 followers: Tweets out live citywide scanner chatter, and occasionally shoots photos at crime scenes.
• Chicago Scanner (@Chicago_scanner), 25,000 followers: Tweets out live citywide scanner chatter.
• SnorkyJr (@SnorkyJr), 1,700 followers: Citywide scanner chatter.
• CWBChicago (@CWBChicago), 6,600 followers: Reports North Side crimes mainly in the Wrigleyville and Boystown areas of Lakeview.
• Eric Tendian (@EricTendian), 3,000 followers: A college student who built a crime data website and tweets citywide scanner chatter.
• #CrimeIsDown.com (@crimeisdown), 1,800 followers: Tendian's social media page that aggregates Chicago scanner tweets.
• HeyJackass.com (@w_h_thompson), 5,700 followers: Chicago crime statistics.
• CapturedNews Shooter (@CNshooter), 2,000 followers: Photos and videos from crime scenes shot by freelancer Pauley LaPointe.
• Captured News (@CapturedNews), 2,600 followers: Photos and videos from crime scenes.
• ITakePix (@slow911), 2,000 followers: Photos from crime scenes.
• ChicagoFireMap (@ChicagoFireMap), 2,100 followers: Area-wide fire alerts.
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