Social Media for Law Enforcement
This is just an outline of my class notes. The important information is in the links:
A lot of police departments fear social media. I can tell you right now that this is something police departments need to be very familiar with and that they need to have a presence on all of these sites – even if it is to simply claim their name and to make sure nobody else is pretending to be them.
Generally, the most important things you need to know are:
1. The rules for police on the internet are generally the same as the rules for the police in real life. Your conduct has to follow all of your existing department policies. You can have officers online in a visible way, like a uniformed officer and you can have officers using websites undercover, just as you use plain-clothes officers in real life.
2. You need to know exactly what your public information laws say you can and can't post online – you should already have policies regarding the release of public information. Ignore the words "media", "reporter" and "newspaper" and replace them with "website", "Facebook Page", "Twitter", etc…
3. Do your research – there are a lot of free resources online
Social Media for Law Enforcement
Course Outline – 04/14/2011
Middlesex Community College / Northeastern Massachusetts Law Enforcement Council / Massachusetts Association of Crime Analysts
Lieutenant Glen Mills – Burlington Police Department, President – Massachusetts Association of Crime Analysts
Social Media Basics
What is Social Networking?
History of Social Networks
Terminology
Social Media by the Numbers
Why is it important to us?
Social Media Usage
Intelligence Gathering – Passive and Active
Undercover Operations
Investigations
Public Interaction
Emergency Notifications
Training
Personal and Business Use
Creating Accounts
A discussion of Web Browsers –Firefox is Highly Recommended
Setting up an E-Mail Account – Gmail is Recommended
Protecting Your Good Name using Knowem.com
Setting up Facebook Profiles
Setting up Twitter Accounts
Setting up YouTube Accounts
The First Commandment
Never, ever, use your own personal accounts
Intelligence Gathering
Passive (Open Source)
Active (Working Undercover)
Visualizers – Myspace, Facebook and YouTube
Undercover Work
Legal Issues
Ethical Issues
Investigations
Real World / Cyber World
Legal Issues
Search.org
Spokeo.com
Communications
Legal Issues
Networking with other agencies
Routine Communications
Emergency Communications
Active Two-Way Interaction
Anonymous Tips
Integrating Your Presence Across Networks
Personal Use
Police Officers probably shouldn’t have personal profiles – If officers have profiles they should understand the risks to their careers, their safety, and to their families
Legal Issues
Disciplinary Issues
Profile Privacy
Exif (Exchangeable Image File) Data
“Checking In”
Instructor Contact Information:
Lieutenant Glen Mills – Burlington, Massachusetts Police Department
www.bpd.org / www.opensourcepolicing.org
781-505-4945
gamills@bpd.org / glenmills@opensourcepolicing.org
Resources:
www.opensourcepolicing.org – A variety of Free Resources and Tools
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Masspolice/– Masspolice – Free Resources and Tools for Massachusetts Officers / Massachusetts Sample Search Warrant Templates are located in the “Files” section
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/kloving/ – Tools and Resources for Investigating High Tech Crimes
www.search.org – Training in High-Tech Investigations / ISP List
www.spokeo.com – Social Network Search Tool
www.tlo.com – TLO is a Public Records Search on Steroids – Free for Law Enforcement
http://www.iacpsocialmedia.org/ – IACP Guide to Using Social Media
http://cops2point0.com/ – Christa Millers Blog on Social Media for Law Enforcement
http://connectedcops.net/ – Laurie Stevens Blog on Social Media for Law Enforcement
http://wordpress.com/ – WordPress – Easy and Flexible Blog, Website Builder and Content Management System
www.tweetdeck.com – Dashboard to Manage Multiple Social Networks
www.hootsuite.com – Dashboard to Manage Multiple Social Networks
