Police Force Embrace Social Media to Fight Crime

The popularity of social media has opened up many doors for ways to deal with crime, with instant updates available on events, and a ready-made network with whom to share information and try to identify suspects. Social media is now no longer just a useful platform for connecting with one’s friends – it’s power and outreach has now been employed by the police force as an important law enforcement tool. Social media is increasingly being used to gather evidence, to identify suspects and locations, to discover criminal activity and as a method of reaching out to the community to name just a few.

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There are a number of ways that the police are able to use social media as a way to help fight and solve crime, for instance through creating  a local Facebook or twitter account for their county. This enables them to create a community of people who will be willing to help in informing them of crimes they have witnessed and for identification of criminals in their local area. For instance, Cambridgeshire Constabulary have created their own Facebook page on which they release news and appeal to residents for any information or identification of suspects, this is only one example but local police forces are creating profiles across the country. For instance, one post asks its followers, “Can you help? We’ve released CCTV images of two men we want to identify and speak to in connection with a robbery at an elderly woman’s home in Peterborough”. This shows the potential for social media to be used as a way to fight crime, through opening up more efficient and easier means for citizens to interact with the police.

Not only does this help the police force through expanding the potential witnesses who could aid in their search for criminals but it also provides the public with some reassurance that action is being taken against criminals in their local area. It may also help to create a sense of community with people rallying together to help their fellow residents in the face of crime and violence in their area. Facebook and Twitter can therefore be an important broadcasting tool, with the ability to target specific audiences and provide large scale transmittance of new information on recent crime, helping to keep residents up to date and creating an online ‘Neighbourhood watch’ system.

Another tactic that has been used by local authorities to target criminals is the creation of fake online identifies to befriend suspects and view their private information online. Authorities who have taken up this approach soon discovered that criminals were using social media networks to show off about the crimes they were plotting, for instance setting up drug deals, to boast about their wrongdoings and upload incriminating videos. Facebook however does not approve of the practice of creating fake profiles as it is against their terms of service, even for law enforcement purposes. While these fake accounts may violate a social network’s rules, they are not illegal and evidence which is collected in this manner can still hold up in court.

Social Media has been particularly taken up in the US with four out of five officials saying that they would use social media to gather intelligence during an investigation, and the majority of them believed that social media helped to solve crimes faster. Findings have found that Facebook is the most fruitful social network for law enforcement, and is followed by YouTube.

Australian police forces have also been proponents of using Facebook, Twitter and YouTube as ways to fight crime, using them to publish appeals for help and to find potential witnesses. In particular Australian authorities have seen the benefits of using social media in reporting cases of sexual assaults. They have found that young people feel more comfortable disclosing information of this unpleasant nature via a social media, as they may not have felt  happy to discuss this over the telephone or in person. The Centre Against Sexual Assault in Australia have found that they have had a surprising number of people who chose to access the website and social media to provide information about sexual assaults and have requested information and assistance through using this medium.

While there are a number of advantages to using social media to aid in stopping crime and catching offenders, there are a few downsides to this use. It should be remembered that not everyone has Facebook or Twitter accounts, this is often the case with the elderly, so they would not be able to access the information shared by the police in this manner. Therefore, it is still important that the traditional means of spreading information about crime in local areas remains.

Furthermore, does this mean we should worry about what we are writing on social media as law enforcement may be monitoring social media more and more and simple comments might be misconstrued? Does this represent an invasion of one’s privacy or is it just a way to ensure that everyone is safer and protected from criminal behaviour?

Rowena Cormack  

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