I have been the subject of a severe stalking situation for two years. In that time, my stalker has monitored my location and actions, tried to manipulate me relentlessly, harassed myself and those associated with me, attempted to tarnish my reputation as well as the reputations of a large handful of men in my life, threatened my safety, and even attacked my career.



Within this time, I had gone to the police at three different locations in two different states. Despite the fact that I was able to provide them with a myriad of evidence justifying my concern for my safety, I was consistently turned away. No one took any sort of action past having a conversation with me. They even downplayed the severity of my situation in attempt to justify their lack of action.



After about a year and a half of this, I came to the conclusion that the most I could do to protect myself from my stalker was to expose them. So, I released a video onto YouTube in which I verbally detailed my experience while continuously revealing the messages that my stalker had sent to me. In addition to being displayed above, the link to this video is provided here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FtEkCLxvJoo



Upon releasing this video, I continued to hear from my stalker less and less. Thankfully, today I can say that I have not heard from them in several months. However, I am no closer to identifying this person and obtaining protection from them. Furthermore, my stalker has not been reprimanded for his/her actions. Despite the fact that stalking is definitively a crime, my stalker is free to continue to monitor my life, continue harassing me and those around me, or even move on to a new victim.



So if stalking is a crime, why does law enforcement brush it off when it occurs by means of the internet? From what I can infer, this is because they do not currently have the resources or knowledge that would allow them to investigate online crimes such as these.



Given the extent to which technology is now engrained into American society, the potential for stalkers to use this technology to their advantage is only increasing. Therefore, this refusal to investigate clearly criminal and endangering situations is simply unacceptable. That is why I have proceeded to form this petition, the requests of which are outlined in the following paragraph.



In the occasion that a person experiences continuous harassment online to the extent that they have legitimate reason to be concerned for their safety and well being, law enforcement should be granted the ability to override online privacy agreements of whatever system(s) the perpetrator used in order to identify them. This is to be proceeded by action being taken to protect the subject of the harassment and penalization for the perpetrator, the extent of which is dependent on the severity of their actions. Furthermore, every police station should be required to have at least some officers fully trained on how to accomplish this.

Please sign this petition to support this cause, and encourage others to do the same.