The advent of text messaging and other electronic devices hasbrought a whole new facet to criminal investigations, especially inthe case of stalking or harassment.

While it takes several days to obtain text-messaging records,officials say it can be done when the case calls for it.

“It’s the nature of the text, how serious it is to see if youcan get a subpoena,” said Brookhaven Police Chief Pap Henderson,saying that text messages with threats in them are sometimestreated a little more heavily than simply annoying texts.

“The average citizen might consider anything scary,” he said.”It’s what law enforcement considers scary. The court may notconsider everything serious enough to get the records.”

Basically, officials said, if someone is texting too much, thatconstitutes harassment, as well. But it hasn’t always been likethat. The law has had to adapt with the times.

“They’ve added a few statutes where it’s harassment,” saidLincoln County Sheriff Steve Rushing, referring to Mississippi codelaw. “They added it in a few years ago. We’ve just had to changethe wording on the subpoenas when we go get records.”

Mississippi has a statute that defines harassment as “a knowingand willful course of conduct directed at a specific person whichseriously alarms, annoys, or harasses the person, and which servesno legitimate purpose. The course of conduct must be such as wouldcause a reasonable person to suffer substantial emotional distress,and must actually cause substantial emotional distress to theperson.”

Henderson said when that’s the case, it’s important for a victimof text harassment to keep their messages as evidence.

“We ask them to save their text messages until we find out whatwe need to do about them,” he said. “We usually let the courtsystem determine what to do with them.”

The problem tends to be more among teenagers and young people,Henderson said, which is partially because the technology is morewell-known among the younger generations.

“We do see a lot of this from the young people – texting backand forth and stirring up a lot of stuff,” he said. “Parents needto look at what their children are receiving or sending. Theseparents bought these phones and they’re paying for them. They havea right to see what’s on them.”

Rushing reminded phone users that they need to be on their bestbehavior with text messaging because it is a written record. Also,he said, when someone is asked not to text anymore, it’s best thatthey cut it out.

“You may think it’s innocent but it can be a crime, and it couldget you in a lot of trouble if you keep it up,” he said. “It’s justlike calling someone too much. You need to stop, because it couldpossibly be harassment.”

Meanwhile, officials say while subpoenas to the phone companycan take as much as 10 working days, they urge victims of any kindof telephone or electronic harassment to get the information tothem as fast as possible.

“Some phone companies roll them off faster than othercompanies,” Rushing said. “Even then, unless extreme emergency, wecan’t get them overnight. Some companies work really well with us,others don’t.”

There are multiple charges that can go with harassing ormenacing text messages, and it all just depends on the informationthe messages contain, officials said. Depending on the facts of thecase, a stalker might also be charged with other crimes, such asmenacing, intimidation of a witness, obscene electroniccommunication, or stalking.

The punishment, whether it be jail time or fines, will alsodepend on the circumstances surrounding the texts. Felonycyberstalking carries up to five years, and up to a $10,000 fine,while obscene electronic communication can carry a fine up to $500and/or six months in jail.

“Just be careful what you send in a text – you may think it’snot out there, but it is,” Rushing said. “Once you send it youcan’t get it back. I’d be real careful about what you send in atext message.”