Cyberbullying includes playing tricks by pretending to be someone else, spreading rumors, forwarding malicious electronic messages, posting sexually explicit pictures or messages (sexting) without the consent of the targeted person. Many times, teens who cyberbully don’t think it’s a big deal. They are frequently encouraged by their friends who also think it’s just fun. They don’t expect to get caught or face any consequences for their actions.

Although it is difficult for school administrators and school resource officers (SROs) to successfully discipline students for cyberbullying that takes place off campus without being sued for exceeding their authority and violating the students’ rights, it is possible for schools to work together with law enforcement, students, parents and staff to address cyberbullying.

Local law enforcement and school resource officers (SROs) should become aware of these occurrences and address them proactively to prevent more dire situations that can result from cyberbullying such as suicides, retaliation or other acts of violence.

Here are a few keys to combating cyber bullying in your area:

1. Educate – Students need to understand that cyberbullying IS a crime. After all, the acts that fall under the traditional definition of bullying are often prosecuted as harassment, theft, and assault. Many of the consequences are the same and cyberbullying can be just as harmful as some of these offenses. Once students start to think of cyberbullying as a crime, it may deter participation.
2. Keep your eyes open – Law enforcement should take the initiative to talk with administration, staff and parents to help identify and address cases of cyberbullying early. Often, parents are not even aware of how their child may be using the home computer or their cell phone. It is the parents’ job to monitor their kids and to help thwart this kind of activity. School staff can report suspected incidences to SROs, giving them leads to investigate and the ability to intervene early.
3. Open door policy – The school should maintain an “open door policy,” encouraging students to report abuses, whether they are the ones being bullied or they are aware of an incident. This is a great way for school administrators, SROs and, if warranted, law enforcement to become aware of cyberbullying activities and also enables them to intervene before situations escalate.
4. Leverage social media – Depending on the social media site and the situation, SROs can open accounts under an alias to help monitor online activities. This is another way to increase awareness of cyberbullying activities.

With a proactive approach, cyberbullying can be addressed and minimized. There are resources available to assist students, schools and parents with this pervasive issue. The Cyberbullying Research Center is dedicated to providing up-to-date information about the nature, extent, causes, and consequences of cyberbullying among adolescents. The important thing is to take a proactive stance.

About the authors:

Rosalind Jackson

ROSALIND W. JACKSON is owner of Train Intervene PreventT, a consulting business that caters to proactive organizations focusing on workplace violence prevention strategies. She is production manager for the Security Executive Council, an organization that provides strategy, insight and resources to risk mitigation decision makers, and also serves as a source of information and support in matters involving workplace violence. Jackson can be reached at tiprevent@bellsouth.net.

Jeff Floreno

JEFF FLORENO serves as director of security operations and strategy for Wren, providers of physical security solutions that create safe learning environments. Floreno directs new product development efforts and provides security expertise to Wren’s education customers. Floreno can be reached at jeff.floreno@wrensolutions.com. To learn more about Wren’s solutions, visit www.wrensolutions.com.

This article was also published on Wren’ School Safety Blog.

Related articles:

• Cyberbullying – Damage in a Digital Age
• Who Should Punish Cyberbullies?
• Cyberbullying as a Factor in Teen Suicide

Being a former police officer I am kind of baffled why law enforcement is failing to build community via Twitter.  I have been following numerous law enforcement agencies over the past year and they Tweet out information, which is informative, but there is no two-way Tweeting. What is lacking is the community building opportunity that law enforcement has laid at their feet via Twitter.

So why isn’t law enforcement embracing Twitter to build community? Here are 4 reasons why Twitter is leery to engage in two-way Tweeting. Not all of law enforcement is missing the opportunity to build community on Twitter, but overall most law enforcement agencies are missing the mark and here is why.

1) Legal Worries – Law enforcement is worried that Tweeting could be official statements that can come back to haunt them. Therefore they only push out factual information relating to crimes, crime prevention, etc. They apparently don’t trust their own officers to Tweet officially, but they give them guns?

2) Skepticism – I feel most police agencies are on Twitter only because other police agencies are Tweeting. Overall, law enforcement does not trust Twitter as a way to communicate with their shareholders or citizen residents. Police don’t trust much, that is the nature of the job, but Tweeting is the same as talking only you are doing it on a computer. It really is not much more complicated than that.

3) Financial Reasons – Probably the most common reason police are not building community through Twitter is due to financial reasons. The cost to have a police officer Tweeting is probably unrealistic in this day of budget cuts and crime. However, in more progressive departments there are ways to use Twitter without huge financial burden, think outside the box.

4) Lack of Value – Another reason law enforcement has not embraced Twitter other than a one-way communication channel is the lack of perceived value of participating on Twitter.  This is probably largely due to a lack of basic understanding of how Twitter works.

Now here are 4 reasons why law enforcement needs to deepen their participation on Twitter.

1) Community – Police have a great opportunity to build a community around their Twitter following. Reaching out to folks on Twitter broadens their reach, introduces them to local Twitter followers, etc.  This could be seen as virtual community policing. Getting the cops where the people are, online.

2) Communication Power House – Twitter has a huge reach and getting others to re-Tweet you usually comes only as a result of two-way communication. By following proper Twitter etiquette law enforcement agencies can realize Twitter love and re-broadcasting of their messages. This could be of particular importance in cases like missing persons, kidnappings, and the sort.  Loads of value and broader reach is a no brainer.

3) It’s Dirt Cheap – There are also low cost out of the box solutions to lessen potential costs for law enforcement agencies participating on Twitter. How about allowing cops to Tweet from a mobile phone, mobile computer in their cars, etc. Possibly have officers designated an official Twitter handle, as certified by Twitter (that’s legit) and allow officers to use this as an additional method to communicate with citizens. Thus agencies are not realizing any new costs, but just allocating new methods of communication.

4) Crime Prevention - Ultimately law enforcement mission is to reduce crime. By following and becoming friends with citizens of their jurisdiction on Twitter they can realize a more crime stoppers tips. An example is the Toronto PD who nearly increased their crime stoppers tips 70% by using Twitter.

Law enforcement is missing a huge opportunity to build community on Twitter and to reap the benefits of those communities. Social media is not very social if only one person is talking, come on coppers get in the conversation.

Twitter is offering two way communication. It is not only sending the tweets, but above all it is offering the opportunity to get in the conversation. Citizens can easily tweet simple incidents and request for contact for different cases. Community policemen can react realtime when they are on duty. Contact between citizens and police is fast en short. Recognizability of the community policemen increases.

What are they tweeting about? They are tweeting about their daily work, giving information on local points of interest and they are advising about crime prevention. In their tweets they can ask for information and witnesses of crimes. They can ask citizens to help them solve crimes or find back missing children.

This gives citizens an insight in the variety of tasks of a community policemen. Community policemen using twitter are getting a lot of positive reactions from citizens. It gives community policemen acknowledgement for the police profession.

Citizens know about the tweeting policemen through the attention in media like local papers or newsletters. Widgets with the twitter stream of the community policemen are placed on local news sites and blogs. Citizens that are visiting the local news sites who are not familiar with Twitter can in this way be introduced to this new way of communication. Citizens who are already on twitter are starting following the policemen, others decide to start using twitter to be able to follow or get in contact with their community policemen. In this way citizens are getting more familiar with their community policemen and it often than easier to get in contact.

Besides the easy way to get in contact with citizens in their own community, Twitter makes it possible for community policemen to get in contact with community policemen in other communities.

Tweeting community policemen are still a novelty. Most community policemen have to get used to interact with citizens using Twitter. It’s not only the unfamiliarity with the use of new techniques like a smartphone, but also a change of culture.

The introduction Twitter in community policing must be carefully prepared. Adequate training and guidance are important conditions for tweeting community policemen. Both policemen and citizens should be well informed about the do’s and dont’s when using Twitter.

In the Netherlands at this moment 48 community policemen are using Twitter.

Bas Slutter and Peter de Boer are community policemen using twitter in the police department Hollands Midden. Bas started using twitter in september 2009. Peter started a little later. In september 2010 there will be 10 more community policemen on twitter.

In November 2009 police department Groningen started an experiment with Twitter. There are at this moment more then 30 community policemen using twitter. Police chief Erik van Zuidam was tweeting that there will be maybe 150 community policemen using twitter in the police department in 2012.

Since January 2010 the police department Rotterdam-Rijnmond has 5 community policemen who are using Twitter.

John Elskamp is the most enthusiast community policemen using social media in the police departement Noord-Oost Gelderland. His collegues are on Twitter, John has its own blog and is on the friendsnetwork Hyves.

In the police pepartment Utrecht there are 6 community policemen using Twitter.

There are three policemen tweeting in the police department Midden en West Brabant.

In Friesland community policemen Gerard Willemse is on Twitter.

The police department Amsterdam-Amstelland is going to start a pilot with twittering community policemen.

Marga Van Rijssel has worked for the Dutch Police since 1992 in Information Management and Human Resource Management. She is passionate about the Internet, Web 2.0, Social Media and connecting people especially in the field of Law Enforcement. She is the Online Community manager and strategist at Politie 2.0.; the Dutch Police’s online community built on the Ning platform. The goal of the community is to share knowledge about the police, intelligence and the complex ICT dossier. The theme of the community is “We know more than I”. @libel | Website: Politie 2.0

Toronto Crime Stoppers received a record number of anonymous tips in 2009 to help the police prevent and solve crimes. In 2007 the average number of tips per month was 350, in 2009 it was close to 1,000 per month. Social media using a relationships and technology approach is one major reason behind the increased success. This article will explain some of the steps taken by a collaboration of community and police through both traditional and social media that led to the increased number of tips.

A Celebration

At a ceremony at Toronto Police Headquarters in January, 2010 at the launch of “International Crime Stoppers Month” an unlikely group of people were on hand, in front of a throng of major media cameras and local, national and international newspaper writers. Toronto Police Chief William Blair was present as the guest of honour.

Toronto Police Services Board member and local city councillor Adam Vaughan was on the podium representing Toronto’s Tweeting Mayor David Miller, as was the President of Crime Stoppers International Mr. Gary Murphy. The Creative Director of national advertising firm DDB Canada Mr. Andrew Simon was next to these dignitaries, set to launch the 2010 “Cash For Guns” campaign with a series of new posters, bus stop ads and billboard ads that equalled a $100,000 in kind donation to Toronto Crime Stoppers.

Perhaps the most unlikely, and most uncomfortable person on the podium was 20 year old Jason Tojeiro, the Toronto BMX rider and youth mentor, honoured in Australia in 2009 as Crime Stoppers International Student of the Year .

I have documented Jason’s work mentoring the youth of Rexdale’s Tandridge Crescent in 2009 in social media on Facebook, Twitter and Youtube. The story leading up to this special day announcing a record number of anonymous tips to Crime Stoppers to help the police prevent or solve a crime is a long and winding road with many ups and downs along the way.

The Backstory

One part of the success story of a record # of anonymous tips to Crime Stoppers started at a Young President’s Organization (YPO) Christmas Party in December of 2007 that featured honoured guests, NHL Hockey greats Ron Ellis and Marcel Dionne, as well as Toronto philanthropist, radio broadcaster and political elite John Tory. Part of the festivities that day included the construction of a freestyle BMX Bike Park by the YPO membership and their families – some 40 CEO’s of companies, all under 40yrs of age. The whole idea had been inspired by a presentation I was honoured to have been invited to do on Social Media in Law Enforcement to YPO delegates in the summer of 2007. Court (and wife Kirsten) Carruthers (Acklands-Grainger International CEO) had left that presentation sharing with me a passion for engagement of youth and police through exciting grass roots community activities for youth like BMX and graffiti.

Some of the most important guests on the day of the BMX Park construction were the graffiti artists doing a demonstration of their talents decorating the ramps with community building art work. One of those artists was the 2008 Crime Stoppers International Student of the Year – graffiti artist Kedre ‘Bubblz’ Browne. He was joined by his friend Jessey ‘Phade’ Pacho, who also has been honoured as an international community builder through his community work with graffiti by Communities Advancing Valued Environments (CAVE).

The success of this BMX Bike Park construction and graffiti community building initiative was quickly spread to a Toronto Community Housing Corporation parking lot at 75 Tandridge Crescent, Toronto, Ontario Canada thanks to the community collaboration between the Toronto Police Service, Barry Thomas from Toronto Community Housing, and Allan Crawford of the city of Toronto Parks Forestry and Recreation Department.

Lost in the Headlines

Fast forward to the announcement of a record number of tips received by Toronto Crime Stoppers at the press conference in January, 2010, you might be surprised to learn that the story in the main stream media the next day was not the record number of tips, but that of a murder victim’s family appealing for tips.

A citizen journalist had seen the Facebook Event inviting the community to attend the launch of Crime Stoppers Month celebrating the record number of tips and launching the 2010 Cash For Guns campaign , and took it upon herself to invite the media to the same time and place to speak to a family appealing for information on the identity of the killer in their time of grief for their loved one Kenneth Mark, who had been gunned down innocently as he got a slice of pizza in The Junction area of Toronto. Mr Mark was a respected community leader who worked tirelessly to keep youth out of gangs. He was Toronto’s 62nd and last murder of 2009. This story, rightfully so, was timely, and needed the attention of the mainstream media to assist the police in solving this terrible murder. But the message to the sustainable success of the Crime Stoppers program in preventing so many similar incidents over the past 25 years was lost for that day… but not in the long run.. thanks to the posting of several videos to Youtube, Facebook and Twitter.

The truth behind the success of the program is that Crime Stoppers is a sustainable, local, provincial, national and international program, with close to 1,300 programs worldwide, all community operated in partnership with their local police agencies and the media. The real reason behind Toronto’s increase in tips from 350/month to close to 1000/month since 2007, and the incredible success of the program is ‘youth engagement’, and the use of SOCIAL MEDIA: Facebook, YouTube , Twitter and Vibe.to.

Three Missing Teens

It started in 2007 with 3 missing Toronto teens, Eve Ho, Kevin Lim and Jackie Li being posted to Youtube, followed shortly thereafter by a homicide investigation for slain teen Omar Wellington in Flemington Park area of Toronto. Since, every type of crime from sexual assaults, to wanted Hells Angels gang members, armed robberies and even theft from autos has been posted into social media. The biggest key has been my steadfast belief in the philosophy of ‘let the people speak’ in social media. There has been a lot of chatter online about the cases, and the positive youth work, which has generated an increased education on how the anonymous tips work.

As alluded to above, it wasn’t just appeals for unsolved crimes that were being posted to social media. Positive youth engagement through graffiti art projects and two freestyle BMX parks, Toronto Marlies hockey games and community skating events, Caribana and Gay Pride Parades (the “Your Tip Is Safe With Us” condom campaign) , the Youth in Policing program (YiPi) as well as daily school presentations were all celebrated in social media. Students were given lessons on privacy, identity theft prevention and responsible posting in the Crime Stoppers presentations, and the fan based grew bigger each and every day.

The Future

The key to making this success continue is the continuation of positive community engagement between the police and the community, and the continued increased use of social media. I’m a firm believer that we must make what has been accomplished here with Crime Stoppers sustainable for police services worldwide.

The Toronto Crime Stoppers program is in good hands in 2010, under the new direction of Coordinator Detective Darlene Ross, and Community Youth Officer Constable Martin Douglas. The plan is to continue with youth engagement projects, and education on the power of prevention of Crime Stoppers programs worldwide. Constable Douglas is very involved in an after school dance program called “Krumping Out Crime”, and is well on his way to establishing a similar following of youth on Facebook, Youtube and Twitter through his positive relationships with “Krumping” youth.

A record number of tips have come into the program in 2009. Over 10,300 tips to be exact. The program has come a long way since it was started in Toronto in 1984 by now retired Staff Superintendent Gary Grant. He took the initiative 25 years ago to form a community partnership driven by the community to help the police. He will tell you that it never was an easy road to forge with the police. The community was always on board and ready to help, but he had to overcome obstacles with the police partnership. Grant says those obstacles are still being overcome today, but it is hard to tell when Police Chief Blair tells the assembled media that his police service greatly appreciates all the community work that the Crime Stoppers community volunteers do to raise the money to pay up to $2000.00 in cash rewards for each of those over 10,000 tips.

We must teach other community members and law enforcement officers to use the power of social media. The police and the community do great work, but a lot of it does not get celebrated or ‘engaged’. We need to think of ‘engagement’ and not simply ‘marketing’ of the community safety message. It is as simple and inexpensive as a $150 digital camera and an investment daily of thirty minutes of time on social media sites like Facebook, Youtube and Twitter. The road to success is relatively inexpensive. Saving even one life is worth every penny.

( Talk: 1-800-222-TIPS (8477) Type: http://222tips.com or TEXT TOR plus your message to CRIMES (274637) . .. see how anonymous text tips works worldwide here, which has resulted in increased awareness of the cases themselves and how Crime Stoppers works. Recently, the ability to leave a tip directly from Facebook has been added to the pages of Toronto Crime Stoppers, Toronto Police Service and Crime Stoppers International, as well as the individual profiles of myself and Constable Martin Douglas. The best is yet to come.

To view videos and posts related to this article click on the following links:
http://YouTube.com/1800222tips
http://YouTube.com/222TIPSCommunity
http://YouTube.com/LegalGraffitiArt
http://Youtube.com/TorontoBMX
http://YouTube.com/TorontoPolice
http://Twitter.com/TorontoPolice
http://Twitter.com/1800222tips
http://Twitter.com/GraffitiBMXCop
http://Facebook.com/ScotMills
http://Facebook.com/ScotMills2
http://Facebook.com/1800222tips
http://Facebook.com/TorontoPolice

Constable Scott Mills has begun a new position as the Toronto Police Service Social Media Relations Officer on April 1, 2010. He can be contacted at scott.mills[at]TorontoPolice.on.ca

Last Wednesday I was listening to Glenn Beck on the Fox News Channel. I don’t remember what he was talking with regard to cops but he said something that got my attention. Beck said, “Instead of criticizing cops why don’t we thank them?” An idea was born and I tweeted it immediately:

I sent a DM (direct message) to my friend, Lauri Stevens, to see what she thought about the idea. She immediately tweeted me back:

I knew if the social media guru to cops liked the idea we were on to something. Even the day before the first Thank-A-Cop Thursday, the response from other tweeps across the U.S. was immediate:

Thank-A-Cop Thursday received immediate international support:

Thank-A-Cop Thursday’s debut steamrolled across Twitter:

John Solomon at “In Case of Emergency” blog wrote a post about Thank-A-Cop Thursday:

I lost track of how many times #ThankACopThur was RTd and shared with others in the Twitterverse..

The end result of Thank-A-Cop Thursday? Cops were encouraged and felt appreciated.

The original hashtag for Thank-A-Cop Thursday was #ThankACopThur . Based on the feedback we received from tweeps we determined that we needed to shorten the hashtag. The new hashtag for Thank-A-Cop Thursday is now #TACOP

The 2^nd Thank-A-Cop-Thursday is this Thursday. Please join tweeps across the world as we say “thanks” to cops, police, law enforcement and their families for their service and sacrifice.

Mike Ellis is an emergency management professional with an acute appreciation for, and knowledge of the use of social media for communicating during emergencies. Currently, he is the Customer Relationship Manager for Emergency Communications Network (ECN). Ellis has been with ECN for 10 years. Prior to ECN, Ellis was a Promotion and Marketing Director for 18 years in the radio industry.

Jeff Brown

It’s a simple thing really, writing an FBML (Facebook markup language) script for a new Facebook tab. That’s what Jeff Brown did. “It’s not rocket science”, he said and he’s right. But still, HE DID it. It may not be rocket science, but with 500 million Facebook users, putting a tab to allow citizens to leave a crime tip on a Facebook page is positively brilliant.

Brown is a computer training consultant in Truro Heights, Nova Scotia.  His company is Alpha Computer Training and Consulting. He was talking with Constable Scott Mills (Toronto Police) one day when they cooked up the idea. They knew that having a system to report crime within Facebook was a bad idea because Facebook founder and CEO Zuckerburg isn’t exactly known for privacy protection. “I realized all we had to do was create a button that could open the form.” So Brown worked with Kevin Anderson, the founder of Tipsoft (now owned by CrimeReports), which is the engine behind the CrimeStoppers anonymous tip service.

Brown installed the tab on the CrimeStoppers International (CSIWorld) Facebook page. Then he called me. Together we’re working with any law enforcement agency, who’s already a Tipsoft client, to install the tab on their Facebook pages. While it’s possible to place the tab on any Facebook page, Kevin Anderson pointed out, “to do so would be against the Tipsoft Terms of Service”. Furthermore, said Anderson, the national receiver center for those tips would get overloaded. By the way, all it takes to be a client for Tipsoft’s webtips is $600 a year.

Jeff wrote directions which include the FBML script. If you’re somewhat technical you can do it yourself. But if you need a hand, either one of us will help. You’ll need a logo not wider than 520 pixels. Store the logo on a server somewhere and copy and paste the URL (web address) to the logo so it’s handy for later. You’ll need the URL for the webtip page from your CrimeStopper program. You install FBML with one click, copy and paste Jeff’s script, replace the two URL’s with yours, and you’re done.

The Arcadia Police Dept is in Los Angeles County and has created a tab on its Facebook page which takes a citizen to the LA Regional CrimeStoppers webtip form. I worked with Sgt Tom LeVeque to install it in about 15 minutes last week.

LeVeque acknowledged the installation was “a breeze. Even with my minimal computer expertise, I was able to cut, paste, and substitute some links into the code and we were done in minutes.” LeVeque said having the tab on his PD Facebook just makes sense. “I think this is a great example of how the use of Social Media can be a force multiplier in community outreach and communication.  Not only do our 340+ fans have access to us, but any visitor to our Facebook page now has the ability to speak, even anonymously, to the Arcadia Police Department about criminal activity.  This type of service furthers our motto, ‘Making a Difference.’”

Any agency which has a tip reporting system can install this tab on its Facebook page. Brown and I are expecting that once word gets out, many PD’s will want to. “I’m pretty sure we’ll see wide-scale adoption of this, it’s just too easy”, he said. It really is easy.  But we’re here to help if you need it. If you install the tab at your agency, please leave us a note here to tell us how it went.

Jeff is at info@alphacomputer.ca

I’m at lauri@lawscomm.net or 978.764.9887

#SMILEcon #2 is on the way

LAwS Communications is working to identify several possible locations for future conferences all over the world. But the next stop is Santa Monica. Chief Tim Jackman has graciously offered his agency as host of The SMILE Conference. We’ll be in session from Jan 10-12 at the RAND Center right across the street from the PD. January on the beach in southern Cal? How bad can that be?

Same name, widening the concept

When we dreamed up the first SMILE Conference we played around with several website name choices and when S-M-I-L-E occurred to us, we looked no further. Standing for “Social Media in Law Enforcement”, it was perfect. However, it was during the conference in D.C. when several of us realized it’s about more than social media and that a tweak to the acronym was in order. It is now known as “Social Media the Internet and Law Enforcement”.

To that end, we’ll cover community engagement, reputation management and the many operational pieces on Monday of the conference. On Tuesday we’ll discover the numerous applications in investigations. On Wednesday, we’re exploring related topics that encompass social media like possibly interoperability, information management, risk prediction, and others. In fact, we would welcome your input as we put the agenda together. Each day starts with an hour and 45 minutes of training.

Registration is open

If you know for sure you’ll be attending, register before Sept 30^th. We’ve set the conference rates as low as possible and until then, it’s just $399. Oct 1-Nov 30 the rate will be $499 and then it goes to the full rate of $599 and $649 at the door. However, there will be discounts available through PoliceOne and possibly others off the full rate.

Speakers

Some of the speakers from D.C. will be returning, include Chris Duque (retired Honolulu) Mike Bostic (Raytheon) Emily Williams (LAFD) Michael Vallez (Altegrity) Scott Mills (Toronto PD) Todd Shipley (VereSoftware)  Mike Alderson (Open Eye – UK) and others. New faces include Santa Monica’s Chief Jackman, who will be on hand not only as our host but also as a speaker together with Captain Rich Lucero of the Fremont PD. Sgt Tom LeVeque (Arcadia PD) will also be on hand.

We hope to see you at The SMILE Conference.

Mike Bostic

Mike Bostic was first very reluctant to embrace social media. It was part of his mandate when he first joined Raytheon in 2008. But he saw the benefits instantly. “My friends in law enforcement started laughing at me for a little while. Until we started to talking to them about the potential applications and the way that they could communicate with their community. The ones I know pretty well aren’t laughing any more.”

In the latest ConnectedCOPS Podcast Mike talked with me about a bit about social media and the importance for law enforcement to use it to build relationships.  While some leaders may think implementing social media is an imposition, Bostic said real leaders should welcome the opportunity, adding, “A real leader wants to explain to people why we’re doing what we’re doing, and how we’re doing it and why we’re doing it. Because if I’m doing it wrong. The best thing about decisions is that you can make a new one as long as you’re smart enough to listen to your people.” It’s a whole new channel of information that you’ve never had before.

Bostic said if he were in law enforcement today, he’d allow any officer in the department to represent the agency but spoke to the importance of education and training “they’re allowed to take lives, justifiable shootings, when they’re allowed to arrest when they’re allowed to take people’s property…. And yet we resist a Twitter site.  So there’s a disconnect there. If we can train them to do those three things, training them to do the right things in social media is a lot easier”.

We also discussed the importance of math and science education for cops as well as a couple projects Mike is working on at Raytheon. Click the podcast button on the left column to hear the interview.

Ternovskiy just announced he wants help from law enforcement. He’s collecting IP addresses, screen shots and logos and plans to report inappropriate behavior to law enforcement, just exactly which law enforcement agency doesn’t seem to be specified. With all the international aspects, what law enforcement agency could actually handle such cases? There’s no question that many local and national pornography and indecency laws are being broken through the content being transmitted. But how would any police agency really enforce them, especially given the lack of information required to open a Chatroulette account? The victim could be in one country, the pervert in a second and the Chatroulette servers, likely in yet another. It isn’t at all clear that Ternovskiy’s collection of IP addresses is really going to GO anywhere.

The site also bears the warning:

“Broadcasting inappropriate content to minors is a violation of both US and UN law. We are actively cooperating with law enforcement agencies.”

While the video chat service has been severely criticized for its illicit content, it has also received significant notoriety for all the nudity. Jon Stewart has a made good fun of the site  and SouthPark has parodied it, among others. Without all the attention over the lewd content, we may never have heard of it.

Ternovskiy, and others have made minor attempts before this to address the problem. He added a report feature banning a user if he is reported 3 times by another user. Business Insider ran a contest earlier in this year with the intent to help Chatroulette pantless predicament. The story, “Chatroulette’s Penis Problem: 8 Cunning Solutions” ran in March, but apparently none of the 8 was the right solution.

Then, in June TechCrunch reported the site was implementing a ‘penis-detection software algorithm”. (Which left me to wonder how would you like to be the guy the software “missed” ie: no penis detected. Probably way too much insight into the working of my brain there).

Ternovskiy is reportedly working a few potential partners to develop new features and figure out a way to turn it into a viable business. Meanwhile, after experiencing explosive growth since its inception 8 months ago, May was the first month visitor numbers were down.   Numbers down or not, it hasn’t gone away and it seems like the attempts to remedy the penis issue are dubious at best. It appears they do more to increase publicity about the site than actually address the issue. It’s still a parental nightmare and a nearly impossible enforcement issue for police.

IMHO: In the end, the responsible party is Ternovskiy himself. As the site’s (underage) owner, he bears responsibility for the content of his site. While Ternovskiy reportedly gave little or no thought to the business application to the site when he built it. His one goal was to make it big in America.

Slightly less than a year I wrote for the first time on social media policy in law enforcement. Much of what should be in a law enforcement social media policy (copyright, fair use, truthfulness, and the like as covered in the original article) is in every good social media policy. I especially like the policies of the Air Force, IBM, and Intel. But while that’s true, there are several areas that are unique to law enforcement. These were also covered in my original article. I offer here a couple of new insights.

1. Communication Policy / General Use

I have added two items (#8 & #9) to the list of areas unique to law enforcement since writing the original article, but haven’t changed the rest.

1. Integrity. Perhaps the most important part of everything a law enforcement agency does online or elsewhere is integrity. Agency participants in social media should be reminded that Integrity is the essential ingredient to using social media ethically. Agency employees should, therefore, be honest in their use of social media and maintain high regard for the public interest. All information disseminated should be absolutely accurate.
2. Disclaimers. Because you may be giving your personnel the authority to comment on issues relating to the department, it’s imperative to emphasize the importance that officers, especially, state that what they write is their own opinion and not that of the department.
3. Identity. Some bloggers work anonymously, using pseudonyms or false screen names. Law enforcement agencies should absolutely insist that in blogs, wikis or other forms of online participation that relate to the department or the city, or activities or issues with which the department is engaged; department employees use their accurate identity.
4. Department-sanctioned tools. While it should be stated that the social media policy of the agency covers activity by agency employees on tools they may create on their own or those of others that they might contribute to, department-sanctioned tools should be governed more closely. Careful distinction needs to be made between on and off duty work online.
5. Competence. Department employees, whether staff or sworn, should not use any social media tool unless they really understand how it works. Many of the problems with officers getting themselves into trouble happen on Facebook and often the officer(s) involved indicate they didn’t know Facebook worked the way it does. Make your staff responsible for assuring their competence online.
6. Command Staff responsibility. Standard disclaimers, do not by themselves, exempt command staff officers from any special responsibility. By virtue of their position, they must consider whether personal thoughts they publish may be misunderstood as expressing opinions of the agency.
7. Training. Provide social media training for your officers and staff. Once your policy is written, be sure to distribute it with conversations about departmental support for social media.
8. What’s not o.k. to post. This may include things such as department identification (patches, insignia, officers in uniform) and sensitive information or any other information that could reflect negatively on the department.
9. Implications on career. All violations of policy or misbehavior online could have detrimental effects on an officer’s career. But one that doesn’t seem obvious to all is the effect simply having a social media profile, even if there’s never a problem, could have on an officer’s future ability to perform undercover work. Tremendous care is warranted so than an UC officer can’t be intified online.

2. Cyber-Vetting Policy

1. Notice and Consent

• Informing applicants It’s absolutely essential to let applicants know that you’ll be conducting a search of their social networking profiles. Your policy should state that they will be told and at what point in the process they will be told. Some agencies don’t want to give them a lot of notice so the profiles don’t get altered, but surprising them altogether may not be fair.
• Consequences of not giving consent Consent needs to be given to search a person’s online profiles, especially if the agency expects to search password-protected sites. The applicant should be told that not giving his or her consent could disqualify him or her from consideration.
• Type of information investigator may collect Will it be ok for your agency to speak with the online friends of your applicants? Some people are really taken aback by this but is it different from visiting their neighbors? Define circumstances under which agency may contact online friends and otherwise define of the scope of the search, inform the candidate, and consistently apply it to all applicants.

2. Quality Assurance & Training

• Internet search training for investigators The world of online media is complex. Investigators need to understand the nuances of privacy settings, imposter pages, gathering and storing of evidence.
• How they’re monitored
  What procedures are in place to make sure the investigator is operating professionally and securely?
• Ongoing refresher training
  Because platforms like Facebook changes the rules regularly and because there are always new platforms of which you need to be aware, make sure the investigator attends training at regular intervals.

3. Internet Search Practices

• Who can conduct searches?
  The answer is definitely, positively NOT – “the intern”. That seems obvious to most but it’s happened. The procedure for determining personnel authorized to perform such searches needs to be defined as well as the ongoing method by which one will be qualified to remain authorized. Should this position be defined as sensitive and receive all the protections therein?
• Outline expectation for notification of changes
  Do you want to go so far as to require employees to notify you of any changes to their online profiles, such as new profiles they might have?
• Disclosure of blogs they own or on which they participate
  Consider making it policy that if an officer starts a blog or begins to contribute to one, s/he should disclose it first. Also state your position on the prospect of posting anonymously.
• Email addresses
  Applicants should provide email addresses that they have used in the past. Law enforcement generally agrees an email address is an important search term. Issues here include the applicants memory of all email addresses, or those used for undercover or sensitive work.
• Disclosure of online identity
  Many agencies are asking applicants to list current screen names and nicknames used online. What happens if they disclose bank account username/password (because it may be the same as that used for a social platform) and then something happens to that account? Or their identities are stolen. Can they come back and blame your agency?
• Command Performance
  Many agencies are opting to have applicants open up their password-protected sites during the face-to-face interview so that decision makers can review online content during the face-to-face interview, sometimes without warning. Applicants should be afforded the opportunity to explain any online information.
• Limited to a workplace computer
  Authorized personnel conducting Internet searches for employment or security clearance purposes may review online information from publicly accessible, unrestricted websites.
• Use of applicants social security number in searches
  There are many inherent dangers to the practice of putting someone’s social security number in an online search. Doing so can make it viewable to others. It isn’t recommended to be done on social sites which index content.
• Misrepresentation
  Circumstances under which misrepresentations will be made to obtain online information need to be defined. Besides being in potential violation of social network’s terms of service, this topic is controversial. You create fake profiles to catch pedofiles, but under what conditions, if any, would you consider creating a fake profile to investigate a potential employee
• Wall-off
  Some law officers have indicated they feel that if someone discloses potential protected-class types of info online it’s equivalent to a waiver of their privacy. That doesn’t mean a judge would agree. A wall-off procedure needs to be in place to protect the applicant and the hiring manager regarding Internet search results pertaining to protected classes (e.g., age, sexual orientation, race, etc) so that the hiring manager doesn’t see information falling within the definition of protected class.
• Criminal Evidence
  When/if criminal evidence is uncovered during a cyber-vetting procedure, what is done with the evidence?

4. Monitoring & Reporting After Hire

Some or all of the points in this section could also fall under the “general use” section above.

• Ongoing monitoring
  Employees should be informed if it is the agency’s intention to monitor their activities online.
• Conditions for ongoing monitoring
  In response to specific concerns, complaints, or information about an employee, organizations may conduct online searches to obtain additional information on that employee.
• Reporting by peers
  Should an employee who becomes aware of an Internet posting or Web site that is in violation of the organization’s policies report the information to a supervisor. Are anonymous reports o.k?
• Accountability
  Employees shall be responsible for ensuring that sensitive information is not posted on their family members’ social networking sites.
• Rebuttal/Defense
  Employees should be given the opportunity to address anything negative found online. It could be the work of an imposter or an angry ex-spouse. Is the employee allowed to have a copy of the evidence?

5. Application of Internet vetting findings

• Employment decisions
  Hiring, retention, promotion, security clearances and disciplinary decisions, based at least in part on the results of an Internet search, must be based on established criteria and processes.
• Security
  How are the results of Internet searches stored and protected? For your own protection as well as that of the candidates, establish conditions under which the results of your investigation is destroy or stored, and for how long. On the one hand, you may not want it around for liability reasons, on the other if you deny employment to someone, you may need the evidence to prove your negative decision was NOT discrimination.

3. Investigations Policy

I’m not a trained investigator but I offer a few points here only to the extent social media platforms are involved.

• False identities
  Give proper consideration for the procedure by which you will obtain false identities and take into consideration the workings of each platform.
• Department only equipment
  The use of department-only equipment which has no online identifiable ties to the agency. This is standard in any investigation but take special consideration for the use of mobile technology, especially geo-location enabled.
• Training/Competence
  Always important. There’s always a new tool, sometimes a very simple one that will benefit your agency. Keep your investigators well trained and don’t underestimate the value of training by professionals who genuinely live in the world of social media. Any cyber-investigator knows how to put up a false profile, but examine whether your trainer really is up-to-date on the very latest technical developments in the social world. Include in your policy that training is to be provided and investigators need to take on responsibility to know what they don’t know and learn it. A good cyber-investigator stays up to date him or herself by tuning in social media blogs and other sources.
• Proper documentation
  The technique of gathering of anything online should be treated with great care. How it was obtained, with date-stamp, in the chronological order it was obtained is of upmost importance. And, with social networks, the content itself changes quickly. Evidence needs to be gathered more quickly than may have otherwise been necessary, don’t lose sight of the need to document carefully.
• TOS violations
  Some investigative activity is technically against the Terms of Service for social networking platforms. Know the TOS statements of the platforms you’re using and put into policy under what circumstances your agency will conduct activity which may otherwise be in violation of those TOS.

Three final thoughts:

In addition to the specific points above, there are some themes that transcend all policy development in social media.

• Consistency
  One of the biggest arguments for social media policy is so that your agency can be sure that personnel are all treated equally. If you’re accused in court of discrimination in a hiring decision and you don’t even have a document to present that shows you intend to perform fairly for everybody, that’s a big piece of potential protection missing. Of course, actually practicing consistency goes hand in hand with saying you do so.
• Training/Competence
  Training and competence are not the same. I regularly see and hear policy personnel saying training should be part of all policies. But just because training is provided, doesn’t mean the trainee is competent with the tools. I recommend putting the onus on the employee to be able to assure his or her thorough knowledge of the platforms s/he is on regardless of purpose. A great majority of the cases where an officer gets himself into trouble – especially on Facebook – with career ruining activity, could have been prevented if the players had better knowledge of how the platform worked. So provide the training, but include separately that they will held accountable and that blaming mistakes on not knowing it would happen won’t be tolerated.
• Honor your agency’s culture
  No matter what you read or who you talk to, always honor the culture of your own organization when developing policy. If your agency doesn’t need to be overly restrictive and punitive with social media, especially with regard to how you expect sworn officers to behave when representing the department, you will know it. Moreover, the agency will benefit because the officers won’t feel like it’s just not worth doing because it’s too easy to get into trouble.

It’s a brave new world we live in. The main thing is to go forth without fear of these media. There’s more benefit than risk and sound policy will go a long way towards protecting your agency in the online world as well as allay fears that you’re not ready.

As with this or any other post on ConnectedCOPS, let me know your thoughts via the comment section below or get in touch any way you prefer.