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What is the Impact of Social Media on Law Enforcement Practices?
Sebastien Houle

Introduction

This project explores the impact of social media on law enforcement
practices in Canada, and in other countries. This research includes an
extensive literature review, as well as original research from
interviews with different police officers in law enforcement agencies
in Canada. The main scope of this research is to study the impact and
the influence that social media has on the police force, and the
evolution in the use of social media. This study is based on the impact
the use of social media has on law enforcement with regards to
public-safety awareness, crime prevention practices, and
investigation. Primary data from participants’ interviews and
secondary data from published literature have been used as data
sources. The research specifically tries to find out whether this tool is
helpful, if it increases the prevention of crime, and if it is useful for
investigations.

Background

The research will specifically be on finding if social media is helpful
and if it can increase crime prevention. Furthermore, it will be
interesting to see if it is useful for law enforcement investigations
(Royal Canadian Mounted Police, 2015). The study focuses on the
impact social media has on law enforcement agencies, in terms of
public relations, public-safety awareness, and community assistance.
The main focus is to find and demonstrate that this means of
communication can be helpful in increasing the prevention of crime at
the community level, as well as being an efficient tool for different
investigations. (Policing and social media, social control in an era of
new media, 2016).That research will provide a better understanding
of the procedures and how it works. (Canadian Access to Social Media
Information Project, 2013).

Methods

The scope of this research project:
1. Search of academic and professional literature describing the use of
social media on law enforcement practices.
2. Ethic approval by JIBC Research Ethics Board to conduct an
interview with police agencies: purposive sampling /specific
predefined group.
3. Analyze the quantitative data.
4. Compare the data from these sources and the literature. Conduct a
comparative analysis to look for similarities/differences between the
agencies' perceptions, positive/negative impact, and the literature.
Primary data from participant interviews and secondary data from
published literature will be used as data sources.
Find out if social media is helpful:
-in the prevention of crime;
-in investigation; and
-in public-safety awareness and community assistance.

Results/Findings

There are some benefits to using social media, especially in the
areas of crime prevention, investigation, and providing
information to the public. The important point of this research is to
determine the level of the credibility in the information that is
posted on social media. Furthermore, it is important to understand
that the media creates the relationship between the community
and the police officers of the law enforcement agency. Being active
on social media provides the agency with a better response from
the community when there is an emergency. Law enforcement is a
worldwide profession that exposes individuals to high risks. The
fact that the police need to be careful of what the officer puts on
social media, which could have consequences for his role, his
credibility and his personal life. Reaching communities efficiently is
important. The priority to recruit qualified members to represent
the agency must be considered. (Federal Bureau of Investigation,
2012)

Bachelor of Law Enforcement Studies

Positive Aspects
Negative Aspects
- Valuable tool for police. E.g.: In
- Risks: In some cases, officers have
investigation will use social media been fired for posting unethical
pictures on their personal pages.
as a tactic to locate and/or get
evidence on criminals
- Every small thing is exaggerated,
- Good job at letting the public
amplified/ unreliable information is
easily released.
know when individual police
officers have success in catching a - Careless in circulating information
bad guy.
that can affect the officer's private
- Relationship between the public
life/ no consideration for the human
and the RCMP has improved by the side of the individual.
fact that they involve the public in - Don’t care about the real story, they
some of their current investigations. just want to sell some fake
- Facebook is really helpful for
information every time they get the
crime prevention and helping find chance.
someone.

Discussion

Police officers show up on social media in many different ways,
such as through the public posting a picture or a video or through
a news agency posting a story, or through a law enforcement
agency posting its own story. The important point of this research
is to determine the level of the credibility of the information that
is posted on social media. It is essential to know from what source
it comes and who provided it. Law enforcement is able to build
positive relationships with the community. Looking at the answers
from the interviews, and the secondary data, we can see that not
every police department has a great relationship with social
media. In the study, the limitations of social media were the lack of
accurate information, and the presence of irrelevant information.
The community has no information about the background of the
person involved with the police or what information or
circumstances lead up to the initial contact with the police.

Conclusions or Recommendations

The content found on social media is vast and varied and may
come from any source. This highlights the importance of police
agencies having to ensure that the information they disseminate
comes only from those designated by the agencies to provide
information on the agencies’ websites, Facebook feeds, Twitter or
Instagram accounts. The credibility of the information they provide
is extremely important for law enforcement agencies.
Proposals
-Minimize the online exposure and the possible threats.
-Have a designated officer in charge of web communication.
-Install mechanism to limit potential threat.
-Protect the employee with a search engine and send a personal
notice by email.
-Monitor web sites to control and remove files.
-Establish guidelines on the departments' website.
-Promote public relations. (Federal Bureau of Investigation, 2012)

References

Federal bureau of investigation. (2012). Social media and Law
Enforcement. Retrieved from
https://leb.fbi.gov/2012/november/social-media-and-lawenforcement-potential-risks
Royal Canadian Mounted Police. (2015). Social media in “D” Division.
Retrieved from http://www.rcmp-grc.gc.ca/mb/yir-bilan-1314/social-media-medias-sociaux-eng.htm

Shneider, C., & Altheide, D. (2016). Policing and Social Media, social
control in an era of new media (1ed.). Lexington book.
The Canadian Access to Social Media Information Project. (2013). Using
social media information. Retrieved from www.catsmi.ca

Justice Institute of British Columbia