Cyberbullying occurs when someone is threatened, harassed, humiliated, embarrassed or otherwise targeted by another person over the Internet, cell phones or other electronic devices. Research suggests that as many as 25 percent of children in the United States report have been subjected to cyberbullying. It can occur as a direct attack or by proxy....
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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...
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In several police departments in the Netherlands community policemen are using Twitter to communicate with citizens. Community policemen are in that way taking citizens with them in their daily work. With their short messages they can send actual information including photo’s, video’s, location and links. Twitter is offering two way communication. It is not...
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Relationship building with Social Media makes it happen 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...
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#thankacopthur is now #tacop 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...
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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...
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When The SMILE Conference occurred in Washington D.C. in April, everyone in the room knew we were on to something. Social media law officers from four countries came to speak, attend, learn and connect. The energy was high throughout the 3 days. We had chiefs, deputy chiefs, PIOs, Investigators, Constables, every rank. But rank...
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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...
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Chatroulete has been around for less then a year but immediately became a haven for perverts. The service was built by 17 year old Andrey Ternovskiy, from Moscow. Users with a webcam installed log in and have random conversations with people all over the world and randomly enough, you come face to face with...
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Social media policy in law enforcement is a hot topic and well it should be. No one can or should dispute that the importance of sound policy, and the need to guide law officers in proper behavior and procedure online, is huge. Just when you’re getting a handle on the elements of a good...
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