Police have closed two “vigilante” Facebook pages which named and shamed alleged criminals.
Officers claimed the pages were inciting residents of two Fife communities to attack drug dealers.
Specific streets in Kelty and Cowdenbeath were identified as the haunt of dealers and the Facebook posters suggested these were problems “that could be sorted out”.
In some cases pictures of alleged dealers were posted online and it is understood that there was violence in Kelty as a result.
Inspector Ken Chatham, commenting on the Cowdenbeath vigilante Facebook page, said: “The Facebook page was not just documenting incidents, it contained various messages which were suggesting ways of tackling situations.
“Some of these had violent content as a solution and clearly that is something that could bring fear to people and also a danger of people taking the law into their own hands and someone being hurt.”
Cowdenbeath Councillor Peter Lockhart said: “My worry with pages like this is that it raises fear in people unnecessarily.
“They weren’t saying to people, ‘go out and attack people’ but they were naming people and it could have led to that. There was talk of vigilante groups being set up.”
An emergency public meeting was held last Tuesday in Cowdenbeath to discuss the problem.
According to a local newspaper account, the creators of the pages were present and argued that they were merely giving people information on incidents that were happening in the town.
Councillor Alistair Bain, who attended the meeting, said: “We need to leave the matters to the police to deal with and we are working on a way to work together to solve the issues at hand.
“I understand why people might want to do it, but it could have incited others to do something dangerous.”