Using Social Media In Modern Policing

Society in general have showed the distrust, protests and many questions for the like hood of the police profession. The reputation of the police profession is that of the 6 pillars of policing in the modern world as outlined by the President’s Task Force on the 21st Century Policing, which sought to recommend steps forward. Under the banners of ‘Building Trust and Legitimacy’, ‘Policy and Oversight’, ‘Technology and Social Media’, ‘Community Policing and Crime Reduction’, ‘Officer Training and Education’, and ‘Officer Safety and Wellness’ – here are concise definitions for each one and what they mean for American policing ("Final report of the resident’s task force on 21st century policing," 2015).

The media is also another of the greatest challenges for law enforcement. The media never shows the whole story. Chances are the media doesn’t even know the whole story; yet officers are judged by what the media portrays. You can’t hear a news report or even read a newspaper without the race of an individual being identified. This is only fueling the race issue for everyone. It is tearing communities apart. In this aspect, social media appears to be a double edged sword. It can help law enforcement by connecting with the public, tracking criminals, and gathering Intel but it also puts every word or action by an

When the people become active in helping the police through social media, they help the police department build a positive reputation. This will generate a more positive feel towards the police and how they are portrayed through the media. Positive vibes are essential, especially in today’s society given how big the Black Lives Matter movement is. With this, there would be more light hearted news segments about the police which could result in a safer environment for the police and the people.

Since the up-climb of social media began in 2003, law enforcement has greatly adapted to the social media network in order to better communicate with the public and to improve their protocol. Much of police work is unappreciated and unknown of. Therefore, some departments have taken it upon themselves to educate the public via social networks, such as Twitter and Facebook. This is done in order to inform the community of what their department does, and to build confidence and trust towards their agency. Around the country, law enforcement agencies see social media as both beneficial and damaging. Thus, with the awareness that social media is here to stay, law enforcement has chosen to adjust to these social changes and to use them in their benefit.

Moving forward, social media has been a major convenience and reward to virtually everyone. On an individual basis, social media allows friends and family both near and far to communicate with one another. Also, businesses are flourishing through the use of social media. Advertising has never been easier. Horn (2013) states, “Our profession, unlike any time before, is demanding we become social media (…) experts” (1). Horn (2013) also states, “More than half of reporters (55 percent) use Twitter and Facebook to source stories” (1). Social media has greatly benefited business life and personal life.

Before the invention of Facebook, twitter, and many others, social media data collection was used by companies to get customers’ impression about their products. However, nowadays with modern technology the game has changed. Following the discoveries of these various social media networks, users are now capable of browsing vast bulk public postings, and others are taking advantage of it to commit crimes. This carnage of online crime has alerted the law enforcement to look ways to tackle it, hence starting to monitor and collect social media data. Collecting of social media data by law enforcement, is gathering of the users’ information, intercepts users’ communications, and analyzes that data to make intelligence determinations. This approach helps to disclose key information or secrets of online crimes to law enforcement. An online crime such as street gang and terrorism is not a new thing in the world today. Currently, terror and gang

Police were more advanced in technology in 2015 than they were in 2005. Police officers now use social media websites to monitor criminal activities, especially when criminals are dumb enough to post weapons and talk about crimes they have committed. This can be useful in preventing a crime from occurring when someone gets on social media and makes a threat that they’re going to kill someone.

The use of social media in law enforcement has been on the rise throughout the U.S. over the past few years. According to the LexisNexis 2014 Social Media Use in Law Enforcement report, eight out of every 10 law enforcement professionals use social media as a tool in investigations, and 25 percent use it every day. The use of social media to help obtain probable cause is widely accepted, the survey shows. Three out of four respondents, or 76 percent, said that, when they used social media as probable cause, it has never been challenged. The percentage is down from 87 percent in 2012.

Social Media has become a huge part of our lives. It is a way to connect to those far away, or to share things that we find interesting or exciting and can be a very personal presentation of who we are. But in both positive and negative ways we can share our opinions and our view on certain events in the world. These can lead to rallies, protests, uprisings or in some cases revolution, the internet has become one of the most influential forces in this world and a large part of that is due to social media. In the case of the Michael Brown shooting, social media focused on the positive and negative relationships between minorities and cops in the United States of America. Sites such as Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and Vine were all used to show

The news and social media can help with the investigation. The relationship between the police and journalists depends to a large extend upon the SIO and his attitude towards the media (Innes 1999). By working together, not against the media, the SIO can take advantage of the free publicity. It can help with solving crime, reaching out to witnesses, and gaining the trust and confidence of the public (Cook & Tattersall 2008: 386). Especially when a person is missing (Gibson 2015). Jill Meagher’s husband Tom Meagher turned to social media for help with finding his wife, who was missing at the time. It got a lot of attention and within a few days the offender was located through CCTV footage the Victoria police released. The case was solved quickly

Police capture and hold their audience attention by using Kaplan and Haenlein’s five points about being social, which are “be active, be interesting, be humble, be unprofessional and be honest.” (Kaplan, Haenlein. 2009, 66) QPS Facebook and Twitter successfully demonstrate the genuine and informative side to QPS social media activity, while their Instagram is strategically developed to be humble and show the human side like their photos of the dog and their graduating recruits.

Social media like Facebook and Twitter have become more and more popular in recent times. Their popularity is creating new opportunities for data collection performed by the state and private companies like Google and Facebook. The point of this exercise is to outline a theoretical framework for defining monitoring social media in the context of today's society and understand its broader societal implications.

Historically, technological innovation has served as the substance for intense changes in the organization of police work and has presented both opportunities and challenges to police and other criminal justice practitioners, according to Janet Chan, a social scientist who has studied how information technology affects the way police do their jobs.1 Noting that .information is the stock-in- trade of policing,. Chan has identified three general imperatives driving law enforcement’s evening investment in information technology. Using information technology in policing has add that more efficiency to the police department. Comparing the old-fashioned way of patrolling the streets to combat crime to then use them of using technology to predict the crime area and patrolling in advance deters crimes from happening. There are many advantages associated with using information technology in policing. Comparative analysis shows that using information technology (IT) to combat crime has save lot of resources and time in the police department. There are a number of other advantages that can be associated with the use of information technology in the police department.

This paper will be structured as follows. Section 2 will cover a basic overview of the rise of social media through the past few years and the government’s use of social media for surveillance. Section 3 will cover an Utilitarian and Kantian ethical view on the use of government surveillance on the social media of local citizens. Section 4 will cover the social impact and views that citizens may have about the surveillance of their social media accounts. Lastly Section 5 will cover the global impact of surveying social media accounts.

On my journey to explore whether social media is a blessing or a curse, I ended up with several dramatic consequences. As Scott Brickman, in the article, “the advancement of the communication media,” points out “the boon in lights of the technology.” He proves that Social networking has become a necessary part of our communication culture that cannot be disregarded easily. He also