Use of Social Networking by Law Enforcement
Recently social networking websites have become a very good source for law enforcement. Many criminal have been caught by the police and other agencies by having their information tracked through their profiles. These websites are becoming more and more personal. The user’s page can include their phone number, current city and the newest feature: the check in.
I found an article in the Washington Post in which different agencies were interviewed regarding their use of social networking systems Several said that they were key to catching many drug dealers and high profile gang members. Agencies claim that Facebook and Myspace are their first two resources used when looking for a suspect, witness or other people involved in the solving of a crime. These serve as important areas of information gathering for law enforcement. The use of networking sites was used more in a local sense but it has begun to spread to the Federal level. The Federal agencies use these sites mostly for help in solving major gang investigations. Gang have begun using these sites as their primary sources of communication just like the rest of the world. The only difference is this could be harming them more than benefiting them.
It is clear that people especially criminals do not use these websites very carefully. And for that law enforcement is taking advantage as they should. If these criminals want to broadcast their crimes on public social networking sites let them do it by all means. It’s only helping solve the crimes they commit. A case in Washington D.C. involving the gang referred to as MS-13 had a member update his current city to New Orleans, LA. This member had been on the run and had been wanted for more than two years for a gang related stabbing. He was found based off the information on his profile. Some gangs have even been found using social networking sites to silence witnesses and intimidate those who are able to incriminate them.
However, law enforcement has run into some problems when using these sites. Some teens tend to make threats that they don’t intend to follow through on but to law enforcement all of these should be handled and confronted and in most cases it is a teen who is just bored. But in other cases it was a good thing the threat was investigated as it resulted in an arrest of someone planning to commit a crime. A situation in Southeast Washington is a great example of this. A photo was posted to Facebook in which a gang member of a highly publicized gang was holding a rocket launcher. After further investigation by officials it was discovered that the photo was photoshopped.
A Washington, D.C. police lieutenant described these networking sites as “ a spider web of connections” and that is exactly what it is. One person could lead you to someone else and so on. However, do these sites aide more in benefit or harm?
Interesting point Jake. I absolutely feel that the police should use the resources available to track suspects. Facebook and Myspace being an important resource at their disposal. I do not feel that it is any type of infringement on their rights or liberties. People post things on their Facebook's and Myspace's for the world to see and if they do not want people to see things then they should be more cognitive of what they are posting. I feel that law enforcement agencies at the local level would have much more success with using social networking sites than federal agencies would. The populations that local agencies deal with would be more likely to post comments regarding activities and pictures of people that would suggest more. Federal agencies are generally working with a more developed and cognitive group who will be more reasonable with what they post on their Facebooks. It will be interesting to see how this progresses in the future.
ReplyDeletesocial networking sites can be a great tool. I dont believe that it infringes on any rights since these websites are available for the public or atleast you are in control of who sees it. Even if teens are posting things that they really are not planning on carrying out they should still be handled as if they said it out loud. like Aaron said people need to be more cognizant of what they are posting. electronic statments cannot be retracted since they are available to search.
ReplyDeleteI agree that it doesn't infringe on rights because it is public.
DeleteThis is a great topic I have seen in the news a lot lately. I think that the use of MySpace and Facebook to catch criminals is a great idea. The features of these websites such as friends, current city, check-ins, and wall posting (interaction) can be extremely useful to law enforcement. Law enforcement can track who is connected to whom through this. It also can track where people live, where they hang out and who they hang out with. These websites are public so finding out information through these websites doesn't impose on anybody's rights. It basically comes down to how dumb people (criminals) are for posting everything about themselves and giving themselves up.
ReplyDeleteI agree with everyone else here. Using social media to track down suspects is perfectly fair game. Facebook & the like are public. If you participate in illegal activities and you're not smart enough to keep things that could link you to your crimes off of the internet then you deserve what you get!
ReplyDeleteI have an uncle who was released from prison a year or two ago. I'm not close enough to him to know if he served all of his time or if he's out on parole or any other kind of supervision but every single day he gets on facebook and talks about his plans to get high. I just shake my head when I see this.
On a more serious level I just saw a show where law enforcement used Facebook to track down some Russian hackers. These hackers were stealing money from peoples bank accounts. At first they just wired the money to themselves but the banks caught on & started blocking them. Then they started a "work at home" spam email scheme where they'd basically get Americans to wire them the money in exchange for a small cut. The banks caught on to that as well. The last thing they did was to fly young Russians over to America as tourists or on student visas & get them to bring the money back. A computer forensics professor here in America challenged his students to track down the Russian "students" & with help from the FBI they successfully found a lot of them! One Russian girl had a picture of herself holding a ton of US Dollars with a "shocked" expression on her face as her default! How crazy!
I think that these sites can really be utilized by law enforcement to be able to track down people who are wanted by the justice system. I can't agree with people who argue that it is wrong for the police and law enforcement agents to use social networking sites to find people. People are voluntarily putting their information out in plain view of the general public, thats there own fault if they get caught that way. It really is incredible to look at some of the stories that have been in the news lately about this.
ReplyDeleteInteresting article! I am probably one of the most addicted males you will find to texting & facebook, and i like the idea. Also, you don't even have to say where you're at anymore because it says where your posts and updates are from. That's just crazy. I do think there should be boundaries set though too. For example, only track those 18-30. This wouldn't nail every criminal, but since we know this age range is the most succeptible to crime, it'd be a great place to catch the majority. Overall, i think if people are going to be ignorant and post, then they have the ability to be caught. If they want privacy, why would they also post all drama and things on the internet?! I say start with the biggest and most wanted and work your way down though. =]
ReplyDeleteThis was a very interesting article because it relates to a topic that is so prevalent in today's society. Personally, I feel that law enforcement should be able to use social networking in order to combat crime. I feel that if people are stupid enough to post about crimes on the internet or cyber bully somebody than they should have to deal with the consequences that comes with that. This includes law enforcement reading what they put on the internet and prosecuting them on that. Any time that that a person uses a social networking site, they are willing putting out information about themselves on the internet to be viewed by others. So, why should the police not be able to access this information. Now, I do think its a different situation when the police gain the information for areas of the social network that are private. But, the public information should be fair game in my eyes.
ReplyDelete