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.
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.
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:
The development of a social media order among officials can prove to be quite challenging. Law enforcement officials must be meticulous in their use of networking sites. Rather departmental use, or personal use, it is imperative that departments and officers have rigged stipulations on usage as to prevent negative backlash, law suits, and the compromise of evidence and possible convictions. “Pitfalls for police officers on face Book” reported how a NYC ex-con was acquitted of weapon possession due to the arresting officers Face Book and MySpace status that stated he watched a popular movie entitled “Training Day” to brush up on police protocol along with a series of damaging statements that compromised the integrity of the police work (Terrence P. Dwyer, 2010).
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
For Example, in a 2007 gang shooting of David Valadez, the court upheld Ronnie Tienda [Smiley] MySpace/Facebook postings as evidence to convict him for the Dallas freeway shootout and murder of Valadez . In this case, the internal content of Tienda’s MySpace/Facebook postings—photographs, comments, and music—was sufficient circumstantial evidence where the jury found that the social media accounts owned by Tienda were created and maintained by him
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
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
Stuart(2013) states, “Departments that create a presence on social media sites open a new door of communication with the general public. By doing so, citizens can receive real-time information, as well as an electronic method of asking questions, making suggestions, and providing tips that help solve crimes.” Letting out information that shouldn’t be seen by the public can lead to serious consequences for law
The media in our society nowadays is huge and is still growing. It has a huge impact on the criminal justice system, but how does it affect the justice system in today's world? It affects the justice system in many ways, some of those being positive as well as negative. The media’s existence has changed how law enforcement operates significantly compared to when it did not exist. Social media has changed the way law enforcement communicates information, as well as how it receives important information from the public.
Richards, Johnathan (2007, July 25). Sex offenders can use social sites say police. Times Online, Retrieved July 29, 2007, from http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/the_web/article2137973.ece
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.).
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”
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