On this episode of Spark: Police, Perps and Social Media. Click below to listen to the whole show, or download the MP3 (runs 54:00).
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 54:00 — 24.8MB)
You can also listen to individual stories below.
The Facebook Detective
This Spark is all about social media and law enforcement. We’ll hear about how police are using tools like Facebook and Twitter right now, and what they should (and shouldn’t) be doing online. And we’ll get a glimpse of the other side: how the “bad guys” use social media. To us, the question is: how can police take advantage of all the opportunities that social media offers, while avoiding the pitfalls? How can law enforcement get to the point where solving a crime on Facebook isn’t fluke or happenstance, but rather, part of regular policework? This first story is an example of a fluke – how one officer happened to find a suspect while on Facebook. (Runs 5:30)
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Officers On Twitter
Recently, a report was released that looked at the ways police in Canada, the U.S, and the U.K use Twitter. Laura Madison is one of the co-authors of the report (aptly named Survey of Official & Unofficial Law Enforcement Twitter Accounts in Canada, the United Kingdom, & the United States). Laura is a criminologist, and the co-founder of the Canadian Association of Police in Social Media and she spoke with Nora about the different ways police officers tweet in those three countries. (Runs 6:57)
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- Laura Madison
- Canadian Association of Police in Social Media
- A Survey of Official and Unofficial Law Enforcement Twitter Accounts in Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States
- Full uncut version of interview with Laura Madison
Law Enforcement and Social Media – Pitfalls & Possibilities
For every police department that has embraced social media there are just as many that are still trying to figure it all out. To really understand the challenges and opportunities social media presents to police work, Nora spoke with Toronto’s Deputy Chief of Police Peter Sloly, and Lauri Stevens, organizer of the SMILE conference. (Runs 18:33)
Play audio:
- SMILE conference
- Peter Sloly
- Our original post and your comments on Law Enforcement and Social Media use
- Full uncut version of interview with Peter Sloly and Lauri Stevens
How Criminals Use Social Media
We’ve been talking so far about police and social media — how they should (or shouldn’t) use tools like Twitter and Facebook. But what about the flip side? How do the bad guys use social media to break the law? Nora spoke with Todd Shipley, a retired City of Reno police officer who now runs a software company that specializes in the collection of digital evidence. (Runs 7:55)
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Crowdsourcing Justice
Recently we heard the story of a young man who was attacked and beaten in late January. If this wasn’t disturbing enough, his attackers recorded the entire incident and uploaded it to Youtube. The police were getting nowhere with the case, and in desperation the young man turned to Reddit’s massive readership for help. Could the online mobs sift out clues to his attackers’ identities? It turned out they could. More people are now turning to the internet for justice. But what makes a Twitter feed or a Facebook group more attractive than going to the police?
Nora speaks to Sidneyeve Matrix, a media professor at Queen’s University. She sheds some light on why the online mobs aren’t so anonymous, and why that sense of community fuels this growing trend of crowdsourcing justice. (Runs 9:54)
Play audio:
- Sidneyeve Matrix
- Reddit posting by attack victim
- Full uncut version of interview with Sidneyeve Matrix
Episode Details
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Great podcast! It's great to see law enforcement jumping in and keeping on top of the current tools of time.
As more and more individuals begin to adopt social media, it will be very interesting to see how use of these tools evolve and how organizations go about mitigating and managing the risks involved with enabling their use.
To help people find and easily connect with police services utilizing twitter, we have started a twitter list which we hope will grow over time: http://twitter.com/ncisocial/publicsafety
Today (May 20) I was listening to the SMILE podcast (March 13), and was offended by the comments about police actions alone, in pairs, on video or not being routinely above board. My thoughts included Rodney King and Robert Dziekanski. The police version never seems to match the facts if the video is remotely accurate.
And then I listened to the CBC radio 6:00 pm national news. It included an interview with Clayton Ruby, the lawyer in a civil suit filed over the G20police actions. Apparently, the police have closed ranks and can not identify a picture of one of their own. Mr Ruby alleges this includes a police officer who was unable to identify the picture, even though he lives with the officer in the picture.
It would be interesting if Nora interviewed Mr Ruby after he listed to the March 13 podcast.
PS I listen to all the shows via podcast, even though I'm often 4 – 6 weeks in arrears.