Social Media
Alizi M. Douglas
Campbell University
Abstract
Social networking has become the new phenomena that has the whole world using it. Now law enforcement are learning techniques and strategies that are helping them being able to make accurate and precise decisions being able to catch criminals. There are a variety of ways that social media helps law enforcement due their job efficiently. With law enforcement learning the ways of the internet, criminals are also learning how social networking can benefit their criminal acts as well. With this in mind, police officers has to be cautious and stay one step ahead of their peers because if their not, a lot more crime can escalate within this world.
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The reason is that potential targets put a lot more information voluntarily online because they think law enforcement are not apart social media the way they are. All that does is help police officers paint more of a vivid picture of what individuals are doing. For example, there can be applicable information that has been obtained from a suspect who is in a drug organization that attended a family gathering and posted it on their Facebook page. That can help police officers and investigators build an “association web” of that individual. As far as certain areas, street names and people that individual associates with. Images also play a critical role in helping investigators and law enforcement figure out crimes due to Metadata and geotagging of images. That provides key information on when and where pictures or even videos were taken place. Most pedophiles are actually caught in this this regard by taking or saving certain pictures to their electronic devices that are often traced. More good news, is that social media isn’t the only tool that help police officers and investigators. Government websites can provide useful information from your state, your city, your county, your neighborhood, and even your house. You can find out when, where and whom you bought your house from. In addition, information of who your …show more content…
With the increase of the criminals using social networking tools, it can also make the police’s job a living nightmare. That definitely doesn’t make it better with the improvements of the internet and what can be found on it each day. For example, criminals using small mobile devices alone can greatly cause damage. Instances such as sending out viruses, false IDs, or forwarding a planned attack can all be done at the end of their fingertips. In earlier times it would often take a lot more time and effort to pull of such successful catastrophes. With criminals having the ability to be able to perform such crimes at such a faster rate, it forces police officers to speed up their investigative processes to be able to catch these criminals. Just as fast as they made a crime, they can get rid of evidence or erase their footprint so investigators may never know when their number one lead can drive them into a cold case. This leads to the biggest problem of law enforcement which is the obtaining and retaining of social media records. Let's say an individual who is apart of a gang posts footage of him and his gang at their crack house with a whole bunch of illegal drugs and weapons to their Facebook. If a case is being built against that certain individual, that footage would be very useful to bring to court but the only problem is that there are no set time frames for when a specific video is
The internet provides ground for individuals to create, access, and share child sexual abuse images world wide at the click of abutton. Child pornography images are readily available through virtually every Internet technology including website, email, instant messaging.
The use of social media within the fire service is a controversial civil issue in which parties on both sides may feel as though his or her rights have been violated. Many fire and emergency services organizations, nationwide have established policies that prohibit and/or restrict the use of social media by employees, due to the growing problems associated with its use. Social networking is a relatively new issue to the legal system with judicial opinions that vary in wide degree. Social networking has become a tool that can convey a positive or negative image upon a fire department, therefore posting must be performed in good taste as to not convey negative public opinion upon the fire department and its members.
Unfortunately, not all law enforcement agencies are taking advantage of them. That’s why it bears taking a deeper look at these tools and initiatives, to show how they can help fulfill the mission laid out in the Preamble to the United States Constitution – especially the part about insuring domestic tranquility and providing for the common defense. Something that has definitely changed in the years since 9/11 is how much more information is publicly available to law enforcement through the Internet and social media. Internet search tools, social networking sites and other technologies have grown considerably, which means investigators have a greater amount of publicly available information to use in learning about suspects and building a picture of their activities. Including information people publicly publish in their own Web-based profiles.
And finally let’s talk about how social media has an impact on gangs plans and their activities. With the help of social media, people can help stop gang plans for violent crimes by catching a possible tweet or an Instagram post. They can catch it and report it to the police before anything comes to fruition. Instead, it is being used as an advantage to the gangs as they are setting plans to do their crimes through social media websites like Twitter.
Technology has opened new encounters and opportunities for the criminal justice system. There are so many new practices of criminal activity, such as computer crimes. There are different types of computer crimes that many people become victims of every day. Computer crime is any crime that involves a computer and a network. The computer may have been used in the commission of a crime, or it may be the target ("Computer Crime: Chapter 2: What Are the Crimes?", n.d.). Crimes such as data diddling, pump and dump, social engineering and spoofing are computer crimes. Even though these crimes are difficult by privacy issues, the new technology has made investigations and prosecutions well organized and effective. Though views are different on the pros and cons of specific technological changes in the criminal justice system, there is an agreement the system has changed affectedly ("Effects of Technology in Criminal Justice | eHow", n.d.).
Society 's attitude towards police has been a topic of research and discussion for many years. Studies conducted on the relationship between police officers and society have revolved around the differences of race, gender, and age. Specifically, some of these studies focused on who exactly had direct contact and experiences with the police. Relatively unstudied, however, have been issues of how social media impacts the public 's perception of crime and attitudes towards police. As we continue to analyze different ways the perspective of police is affected, it is important to analyze the media 's and society 's satisfaction with law enforcement, and its contribution to the way people perceive, feel, and relate to police. Many do not recognize
In 2012, LexisNexis, surveyed some 1,200 law enforcement agencies that focused on the impact of social media on law enforcement in criminal investigations and found four out five respondents use social media platforms to assist in investigations . The research also found that “identifying people and locations; discovering criminal activity and locations; and gathering evidence are the top activities, while Facebook and YouTube are the most widely used platforms” . In fact, once found on social media, “87% of the time, search warrants utilizing social media to establish probable cause hold up in court when challenged, according to respondents” . Not only, this, while the majority of people who want to help don’t come forward in criminal investigations, many feel free to speak and post information on social media accounts.
Introduction to Criminal Justice has opened my eyes to how important the use of technology and social media are in understanding how our justice system works. On March 15th 2016, Professor
Law enforcement can use the information that is shared through social media to gather information on an individual or group. The information can be where someone lives, who their associates are or their hobbies and interests. This information can be analyzed by law enforcement to further an investigation and or prevent
As social media continues to become the global transmitter of information, many business even government agencies and law enforcement officials have found ways to utilize this modern day source of communication. Many precincts across the United States have incorporated the use of social media as not only a way to investigate and possibly prevent crimes but also as a gateway to their community. In an article entitled “Police embrace Social Media” it was stated that a 2013 study conducted by the International Association of Chiefs of Police showed 81 percent of 728 departments surveyed said they used social media (wagley, 2014).
A spokesperson for the Department of Justice says, “We will continue to use publicly available information individuals post online about their illegal activities or false statements to law enforcement officials in our investigations” (Ellis 2010). As a method for their social media investigations, law enforcements go undercover on social media to communicate with the suspects and gain their personal information. In order to do so, they must gain consent and cooperation from the media sites. MySpace has created a 24/7 hotline and e-mail account to assist police investigations. A MySpace representative says that they are “making sure law enforcement gets the information they need in a way that complies with all laws in order to be admissible in court and protecting the privacy of users from unauthorized exposure” (Ellis 2010). Facebook, on the other hand, has a stricter policy on providing them with information as they created an emergency policy for providing a user’s personal information. A Facebook spokesman says that “One hypothetical is a kidnapped child where every minute counts. It is in this type of instance where we have verified an emergency that we feel a responsibility to quickly share information that could save someone's life" (Ellis 2010). Yet, even in this case, Facebook would only share the minimum amount of information to ensure the user’s privacy is
With the proliferation and ubiquity of social media technology, more criminal justice educators and professionals need to have an adequate understanding of how to use it for their benefit. Social media and government was first viewed as a way to push news updates or relevant issues in a community to citizens, but that is only one component of the many emerging benefits in social media. One year ago, John Dale of the Boston Police Department described the benefits of embracing Twitter as an early warning system:
This is the age of technology and if the police do not learn to adapt and use these new forms they will never be able to keep up with all these new types of crimes. Social media is now used today to send out alerts
For example, if you are chatting with a person that you’ve never been in your friendlist or only recently become friend, have no mutual friends, the scanning program will look for certain phrases found in previously obtained chat records found in criminals, the relationship analysis and phrase material have to add up before a Facebook employee actually looks at communications and makes the final decision of whether to ping the authorities (cnet.com).However, Facebook was referenced in investigations of murder, rape, child sex offences, assault, kidnap, death threats, witness intimidation and fraud; in some cases, argument behavior on the site led to “ real world” violence, while in others paedophile use it in an attemp to groom children who use facebook out of parent’s
Everyone and their dog it seems like have a social media account. As technology continues to make advancements, people are required to make advancements to support technology. It is almost impossible to keep up with everything, especially crime. One major group of people who are just now catching up with the social media trends are those men and women in law enforcement. With millions of active daily users, the threat of crime can be spotted in advance and stopped, the citizens can be alerted and informed of what is going on in their community and stay safe. Law enforcement now is able to use the internet to help; analyze social media, identify threats, reach out, and involve the community. Being able to analyze or “snoop”