Technological advancements in the recent past have solicited innovations that have revolutionalized almost all industry. The most notable achievement has been the creation and use of the social media space. This arena allows individuals to communicate using different platforms and deceive temporal and spatial barriers in communication. This concept is widely visible on platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, amongst others. As a result of this groundbreaking technology, the world has become a global village as people are connected irrespective of geographical boundaries.
In addition, the adoption of social media has allowed for improved, and faster communication as the use of any platforms identified above has enabled quicker news delivery. Social media has significantly impacted societal trends, and different industries have embraced its use lest they become obsolete (Zarrella, 2010). Law enforcement agencies are one of these categories that have adopted social media in the course of operations. Although its use has not been predominant, the benefits accrued from its use indicate a potentially promising future and a wide array of advantages. In order to further evaluate the newly introduced concept of social media and the resulting impact on its use, this paper will assess the application of social media in law enforcement activities.
Law Enforcement
The premise of law enforcement rests on crime prevention, investigation, and enforcement of justice. Law enforcement agencies work to achieve peaceful societies through the undertaking of the three core functions identified above. In human societies, the facilitation of the aspects of the law ensures order in the community. This task is mostly carried out by agencies such as police departments (Roth, 2011). Traditional policing is characterized by the use of use of computer databases that assist in profiling criminals for potential crimes. With the advent of social media, such agencies have the power of community policing through the society in which they operate in. following the connectivity advantage that social media platforms provide, law enforcement authorities have at their disposal an essential tool that assists in promoting effectiveness and efficiency of service provision to the public.
In this case, law enforcement agencies can achieve their objective of improving public safety not only through internet crimes but actual offences committed on the streets on a daily basis through the use of social media. The adoption of this essential element in public service is being embraced by related agencies and departments in the following ways:
Locating and tracking of criminals
As opposed to the placement of wanted criminals’ posters on trafficked streets, the police are placing such information on the most trafficked avenue in the world, on different social media platforms. This is in response to the trend that identifies the usage of such sites by millions of users on a daily basis. Furthermore, the ability to exchange, photos, locations, and texts in lighting speed provide a useful tool to be adopted in the course of law enforcement activities (Kocagoz, 2013). Such options allow multiple frequent updates about individual’s activities. For this reason, the police can post photos of wanted individuals on sites such as Facebook and Instagram.
Given that many people widely use such platforms, such information is visible to the public who can take recommended action which might include sharing information or taking considerate care by the potential danger the criminal might cause to the public. For instance, individuals can provide tips to the police department of the whereabouts of identified offenders, which leads to the easy tracking of their locations. Since these platforms are also used by criminals as a result of socialization mechanisms, it becomes a helpful start in identifying the locations of such individuals. For instance, through the use of Facebook’s ‘check-in’ feature, the police can use cell tracking systems in conjunction with social media tracking and lead to locating the physical locations of criminals.
Facilitating Community Interaction and Involvement
Given the fact that safety involves all stakeholders, the public included, it is imperative for law enforcement agencies to maintain a good relationship with the communities they work in. this is because it provides a mutually beneficial relationship between the two parties as all are interested in the same objective of ensuring safety in the society. For this reason, the police in the recent past have moved to facilitate hyper-local interaction with the community through social media (Toch, 2012). As a result, the police have moved closer to individuals in the society thereby perpetuating cordial relationships with the community.
As a consequence of this arrangement, the police can carry out their duties with the support of the community they work in hence facilitating maintenance of security. For instance, the Leicestershire Constabulary is a police department located in the U.K has adopted social media in perpetuating their involvement with the community (Golbeck, 2015). In this case, the Department operates their website with a section within it titled ‘Can You Help’ that takes up a blog format. In it, has information about ongoing investigations, missing and wanted persons sections with photos. This section has information that individuals can use to reach the police to share related information. Also, the site is linked to the department's Facebook page that provides for real-time updates which are also connected to the department’s Twitter page and YouTube channel. Individuals can access live RSS feeds that keep them informed of any updates from the police.
Anticipation of Crimes
Social media can be used in crime prevention as law enforcement officers can use these platforms to obtain real-time data that may provide crucial clues to the identification of areas requiring their attention and, therefore, guide their preparedness in anticipation of the situation. In this case, police officers are made aware of any public gatherings and protests and, therefore, assist in their preparation efforts. For instance, the police used Twitter during the English Defence League protest in 2009 at Birmingham to inform protestors of the tactics they would be using and the need to ensure safety (Golbeck, 2015). This situation prevented the escalation of violence and ensured peaceful demonstration during the event.
In addition, on several real situations, the police adopted social media to thwart violence through the analysis of trends on different platforms such as Facebook. For instance, notifications about mass shootings at school as reported on either Facebook or Twitter provide crucial information to the police service to prevent any further deterioration of the situation at hand.
Accelerated Closure of Investigations
As mentioned above, social media can be adopted to assist in police investigations. The social sharing options of photos and status updates can be traced by the police in relation to such trends to criminal activity. In this case, the photos posted by suspects can be used to provide valuable clues for investigations. For instance, the ‘friends of friends’ option can assist the police to connect criminals to other criminal activity. Also, the use of social media can help in settling pending arrest warrants. This is because individuals can be easily tracked through their online activity hence identify their locations. The police can use this information and serve arrest warrants and implement legal proceedings against them.
Thwarting of Potential Violence
In this case, social media, especially Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter have been popular spaces used by gang members (Marcum and Higgins, 2011). Legal enforcement officers can infiltrate these rings through impersonation as an officer can pose as a fellow gang member and connect with the gang online. With this access, the respective officer can be able to gather the evidence through photos and texts communicated among members who are required to stop any illegal activity through their arrest. Using this strategy, the concerned officer can create fake social media accounts and seek for acceptance of their requests from any gang member. Since it is very difficult for individuals to know the credibility of a person's credentials, they can approve their friendship requests. This sets precedence for establishing connections within the network and making vital links using social media that seek to lead to the gang leaders and other influential individuals within the gangs. Through this process, law enforcement can understand gang dynamics in which the acquired knowledge can be applied to other future analysis.
Provision of Information
Platforms such as Twitter have provided vital spaces for tracking and sharing information on the interwebs. The micro-blog design adopted by Twitter allows for the sharing of short messages. This provision facilitates the communication of relevant information to the public by law enforcement officers. Furthermore, Twitter specifically has frequently been used for monitoring of movements and trends in public spaces. For instance, the New York Police Department used Twitter to assess the movement of crowds during Michael Jackson's burial. This allowed them to organize their troops accordingly to facilitate a smooth procession without any mishaps.
Also, Twitter has been used by various police departments to share real-time information with the public. Information such as traffic updates is shared on Twitter. This situation is reflected by the Toronto Police Service. The adoption of Twitter as a traffic-sharing platform was due to mainstream media editing times of traffic notifications. As a result, this distorted the real-time feed that was being made available to the public.
Conclusion
In spite of the above discussion about the potential benefits law enforcement agencies can acquire from the adoption of social media, the majority of such agencies are yet to embrace fully it in their systems. One of the concerns raised by this observation is that it is too complicated to be incorporated into the system. However, as Plyler (2015) indicates, all it needs is a well-planned strategy that the department can formulate on the use of these internet resource tools.
Furthermore, this aspect should be supported by a departmental policy and procedure to streamline activities. The agency can also invest in training of the use of social media for their officers to fully exploit maximum benefits from its use as discussed above. In this case, the prevalence of social media has provided vital concepts that if not utilized by law enforcement agencies to improve an efficiency of processes; they stand to lose from the massive potential for its application.
References
Golbeck, J. (2015). Introduction to social media investigation: A hands-on approach. Walthan: Syngress.
Kocagoz, K. (2013). Law enforcement adoption of social media: Diffusion of innovations approach. New York: John Jay College of Criminal Justice.
Marcum, C. & Higgins, G. (2011). Social networking as a criminal enterprise. New York: CRC Press.
Plyler, D. (2015). Developing social media for law enforcement agencies. Salemburg: North Carolina Justice Academy.
Roth, M. P. (2001). Historical dictionary of law enforcement. Westport.: Greenwood Press.
Toch, H. (2012). Cop watch: Spectators, social media, and police reform. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
Zarrella, D. (2010). The social media marketing book. Beijing: O'Reilly Publishers.
