Blog 4 - Social Media as a Law Enforcement Tool

Credit: http://beyondthecurtain.wordpress.com

          Recently the local police department in the town I was born and raised in decided to send out text messages to individuals who wished to receive police press releases. This was a new and exciting approach to keeping citizens informed using new means of communication. There is no doubt that a socially connected society must be coupled with socially connected law enforcement agencies. Society today is more socially connected than it has ever been, and law enforcement is finally waking up and taking advantage of this new phenomenon. The sheer idea of community policing is that the police must be cognizant of its citizens within its jurisdiction; understanding their wants and needs. The fact of the matter is that most of the citizens are online so therefore the police need to be online as well. Those agencies that have not adapted policies or divisions that use social networking sites are behind the times and are missing out on the many benefits of a socially connected police force. This new wave of law enforcement taking on policies bringing their department into the cyber world is a cutting-edge and progressive way to address the issues at hand.

            The facts are clear, the majority of citizens, a whopping 88 percent according to reporter Allison Barrie, want to see the police use more channels of communication. Only 27 percent of citizens surveyed in the United States believe they are adequately updated by the police. More than 75 percent of United States Citizens surveyed believe that social media networks would be an adequate way to update them. Police are primarily using traditional channels – newspapers, radio, and televised media stations – to keep their citizens informed. But many people believe this process is too slow and society can benefit from being updated quicker. The Seattle Police Department has heeded the call and began implementing a new program called “Tweet By Beat.” This new cutting edge program allowed Twitter users to follow different beats within the city of Seattle and learn about breaking stories and incidents in their respective areas. This has been an over whelming success with the citizens and has thrust the Seattle Police Department into leading the charge for more effective policing (Barrie). Social media provides an excellent tool for keeping the citizens informed but it also provides unique benefits to the police as well.

Credit: ABC News

            On June 15, 2011 in the city of Vancouver, Canada, chaos broke out after Boston won the Stanley Cup. Cars were torched, businesses were looted, and officers were battered. The Vancouver police department recorded receiving “3,500 e-mails” that included “53 videos, 708 photographs and 1,011 hyperlinks to social media sites such as Facebook” (Donna Leinwand, Leger, and TODAY USA). The Vancouver police department had to assign officers to sort through the mounds of evidence. As quoted in an article in Today USA, "This is the first major incident where social media has been so prevalent," said Constable Lindsey Houghton, a police spokesman for the Vancouver Police Department. This created a unique obstacle for the Vancouver police department. Usually in a case, there is a crime that occurs and police use evidence to discover the suspect. In this case, police had names of suspect’s before they even knew what they had done. A resident of Vancouver created a page on Facebook titled “Vancouver Riot Pics” which has received over 100,000 fans. Many people “tagged,” or identified, perpetrators in the pictures or took screen shots of confessions or admissions of guilt and passed it off to the police. The Vancouver Police Department was able to react quickly and bring justice to those involved. They were praised in their handling of the incident partly because they were ill-prepared for the new policing techniques (Donna Leinwand, Leger, and TODAY USA). The City of Vancouver is not alone in adapting and implementing new policies with regards to social networking.

            Police investigators in Cincinnati stumbled upon a video of an armed robbery in which the perpetrators posted the video to an online social networking site and then bragged about it. The investigators only discovered it because they were using social media sites to investigate another crime trying to discover friends and family of a potential suspect. Cincinnati Police Department already encourages its officers to use social media sites an investigative tool. Law Enforcement agencies at all levels, like the Cincinnati police department, are making room in their cash-strapped budgets for training in online investigations. Cincinnati has seven analysts charged with the task of social networking investigations and information. The police department wants to add more. That particular unit now receives more than 100 investigation requests per month because it has proven to be extremely beneficial in court cases as strong evidence (Roger, Yu, and TODAY USA). Police agencies have limited resources and may not be technology savvy enough to make full use of social media as an investigative tool. Due to this reason, the private industry is stepping forward and is revolutionizing the tools available to law enforcement.

            Police have a daunting task of having to swim through waves and waves of social information when conducting social media investigations. Sometimes the company, such as Facebook, does not provide the user data to the Police Department without a warrant or subpoena and even after obtaining a warrant or subpoena, the data obtained is not easily translated into common language. That is why one researcher in Austria has developed an application that would allow law enforcement officials to very easily categorize all of the data used on a social networking site by messages, location, and specific keywords used. In some cases, this can be done without Facebook’s permission if the computer or hard drive is already in the police’s possession. More and more private industries are coming up with ways for Law Enforcement to maximize their effectiveness online for the purpose of sending out information and for criminal investigations (Aron).

            Law Enforcement is on the verge of implementing new, cutting-edge programs that would have never been considered just ten years ago. By implementing these new programs, such as the “Tweet By Beat” program in the Seattle Police Department, the agency can expect to increase its relations with the community and will be more respected. An agency that is respected by the community it polices is more likely to be successful through the continued support of the community. Public Information Officers will begin taking on new roles in their departments focused more on new communication channels with the citizens. Agencies will be opening up divisions specifically tasked with combating the new social networking phenomenon and will see unprecedented changes. Law Enforcement will begin to change completely as we enter into a new era of social connectivity.  

Works Cited

Aron, Jacob. "Cybercrime's Social Side." New Scientist 212.2838 (2011): 26. Academic Search Premier. Web. 6 Nov. 2012.

Barrie, Allison. "Why the police should take to Twitter NOW." Fox News. Fox News Network, 11 2012. Web. 6 Nov 2012. <http://www.foxnews.com/tech/2012/10/11/why-police-should-take-to-twitter-now/>.

Donna Leinwand, Leger, and TODAY USA. "Social media aid Vancouver police in identifying rioters." USA Today n.d.: Academic Search Premier. Web. 6 Nov. 2012.

Roger, Yu, and TODAY USA. "Social media's role in police investigations is growing." USA Today n.d.: Academic Search Premier. Web. 6 Nov. 2012.