Training Cops To Use Social Media Information 51
jfruh writes "Cynthia Navarro starts her sessions training police to mine social media in dramatic fashion: by quickly finding data about the officers themselves. She also provides information about who's where online — for instance, younger suspects will probably be focused on Twitter, while older folks are on Facebook or even MySpace. 'How much information can be gathered? Look no further than the 2011 Stanley Cup Riots in Vancouver, BC. By examining hours of video and social media posts made during the event, a taskforce was able to post pictures of over 100 suspected rioters online — over 30 of which were identified by police.' It's all part of a drive to teach even nontechnical police officers at small and midsized departments how to use social media to track suspects."
Re:Only old people ... (Score:4, Insightful)
I don't think any of the young people I know are even aware of what twitter is. Hope the police didn't pay too much for the training!
You have the Right to Remain Silent (Score:5, Insightful)
there is a reason this is listed BEFORE You Have the Right to an attorney.
Just remember kids Anything You say^HPost can be held against you in a Court Of Law.
Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:And don't forget, kids (Score:4, Insightful)
To a cop, there are five kinds of people: cops, family of cops, judges and politicians, and suspects.
Re:Training Cops To Use Social Media Information.. (Score:5, Insightful)
Exactly. Before training doughnut-munchers to troll twitter and facebook for information on criminal activities, how about we spend those time and resources educating them on constitutional basics so that they violate those of the people they protect less often? Cops aren't lawyers. Their job is to just sort of enforce laws with blunt-force and let someone else sort things out, later. But imagine if they were educated just a little bit about the constitution? (Cops know nearly nothing about the constitution or the law, hence why they so easily and frequently and STUPIDLY violate it on a daily basis). Give them anything more complicated than giving out parking tickets or responding to a break-in and they're like my dog trying to comprehend string-theory.