A recent post featuring an infographic showing how burglars use social media was the most popular one of the year.
This new infographic commissioned by the Huffington Post from Visually gives an excellent overview of the dangers of identity theft:
A recent post featuring an infographic showing how burglars use social media was the most popular one of the year.
This new infographic commissioned by the Huffington Post from Visually gives an excellent overview of the dangers of identity theft:
Editor’s note: Previously on this blog we posted and infographic titled “How burglars use social media”. On the heels of that posting came this infographic as a result of research done in The Netherlands suggesting just the opposite.
‘Don’t advertise that you are away. Social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter can be a risk if people know you are away and your home is empty’. This is a frequently repeated message. Taking precautions is reasonable but why make such a fuss about it when there is none scientific proof that burglars do use social media?
This research makes clear that it appears to be quite difficult to use social media in regard to finding a suitable home/target for burglars. The research states that 77% of the social media-users protects their online information. Because of all the well protected information, burglars find it difficult to find useful information and even more so to use this information to actually steal something. In addition, an experiment in which two groups of cops (in training) were playing the part of burglars, makes clear that compared to the ‘old fashioned way’ (scouring the streets), social media is not lucrative. The ‘burglars’ in the control group were asked to find as many suitable targets in the streets. The ‘burglars’ in the experimental group were asked to find as many suitable targets while using social media. It appears that searching through or with social media is quite difficult and above all extremely time consuming. This makes the control group – and the old fashioned method, more profitable. Moreover, a burglar has to check the house once more before actually entering the house.
After all: the best way to enter the house is not updated on social media and has to be observed while standing in front of the house. The following infographic – made by Renée Penris – demonstrates the other conclusions following this research.
Linda Nagelhout just completed her MsC in Criminology at De Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Her final thesis was about Burglary & Social Media. This infographic is the result of her research. @Lindo1509
The ConnectedCOPS Social Media Investigator Award is generously sponsored by LexisNexis. The finalists in this category are doing extraordinary work with open source investigations. They demonstrate a consistent, methodical, persistent and high quality approach. The judges were very impressed with the quality of nominations in this category. Mary Craige is the Marketing Manager for LexisNexis’ Law Enforcement Division. She said “This year’s nominees for the ConnectedCOPS Top Social Media Investigator illustrate the importance of law enforcement’s ability to find, mine and analyze activity in social media. All of these nominees show their understanding of the medium and their ability to adapt their investigations to how the social media landscape is changing.”
This award is given to the sworn law enforcement investigator at any worldwide law enforcement agency who, as a practitioner, has used social media successfully to solve crime. The Social Media Investigator practices appropriate security measures and supervision in his/her investigations.
The three finalists are:
Jeff Bangild Detective Bangild works for the Toronto Police Service. He is highly respected for his work involving the Internet and social media especially in cases of criminal harassment. Bangild has made ground breaking headway in obtaining reasonable and probable grounds for arrest and charges with reasonable prospect for conviction by using social media investigative techniques that don’t require a forensic analysis of a suspect’s computer. Complainants who deal with him have the utmost respect for his demeanour and tenacity to get the job done, often when other police officers haven’t a clue where to start to investigate. Bangild is currently part of a team at Toronto Police Service designing policy to facilitate community and officer safety better using social media tools.
Eric Draeger Officer Draeger is with the Milwaukee Police Department. His work is primarily in the area of juvenile gang crime. Draeger’s work is said to have made a significant impact upon the safety of the Milwaukee area. His work has led to preventive measures taken by law enforcement to intercept threats of widespread violence during city events. In a recent adult trial Officer Draeger was able to take 31,000 pages of discovery from Facebook and develop a way to insert the evidence into a searchable database. His analysis lead him to be able to pinpoint that the defendant attempted to purchase a handgun the day before armed robberies had occurred. Draeger is also able to explain the intricacies of his social media investigative work to non-technical people and gain convictions in court.
Sam Palmer Detective Palmer is with the Phoenix Police Department. He is highly regarded in the law enforcement community and is regularly called upon to share his knowledge at law enforcement events. In several cases, when given little information, Palmer was able to identify the suspects with analysis of social media and employing techniques to connect the dots. One case involved threats against a high profile person in Phoenix. The other involved a series of robberies. With only nicknames, was able to identify five subjects and provide detectives with thorough profiles on each. In addition to assisting with on-going criminal investigations, Detective Palmer spends time educating youth so they are smarter and less vulnerable when they post information on social media sites.
Finalists in the other awards categories will be announced throughout the next several days on this blog. Check back to see the finalists for Social Media Event Management on Monday. Winners will be announced September 25th at The SMILE Conference™ in Omaha, Nebraska.
The ConnectedCOPS Awards were created by LAwS Communications with the intent of recognizing the good work being done by individual officers and law enforcement agencies with social media. The international law enforcement community will be considered for these awards. Any officer or agency anywhere in the world is eligible.
These sorts of vile attacks are horribly commonplace
The story of how hundreds of men mounted a sustained online attack on Caroline Criado-Perez, threatening her with rape and violent assault in reaction to her successful campaign to get the face of Jane Austen on British £10 bank notes has caused public outrage.
Perhaps the most shocking aspect of the story is how commonplace this sort of vile attack is. Most women Tweeters with any sort of public profile have experienced unprovoked online assaults.
The vast majority of us want to see a fast, reliable way of the perpetrators of this sort of abuse facing the consequences of their actions.
But none of us has yet come up with an effective response.
There are too many of these cases to expect the police to prioritise online investigations.
In the same way, Twitter would have to change fundamentally (not allow anonymity or charge hefty membership rates) if it took over the role of policing itself.
Similarly, although Tweeters will usually support others under-fire, the fact that this sort of perpetrator can swiftly set up numerous anonymous accounts makes that form of action ineffective.
Tweeters who are targeted can of course block offenders, but that’s almost impossible to do when you’re under sustained attack – and why should the victims of any crime be responsible for taking action?
I don’t have a great idea for a magic bullet myself.
However, there are some good articles and blog posts out there suggesting different ways forward.
I’ve assembled these into the Storify below to help readers formulate their own ideas.
Please suggest any new ideas that I can add to the collection.
LAwS Communications announces the finalists for the
ConnectedCOPS Excellence at a Small Agency Award.
The finalists in this category have demonstrated innovation and variety of approaches to integrating social media. We congratulate all our finalists for their incredible contribution to the global effort to achieve excellence in social media use by law enforcement.
ConnectedCOPS Excellence at a Small Agency
This award is given to a law enforcement agency of 150 sworn officers or fewer that has demonstrated overall excellence in the use of social media to enhance its services to the public. The agency exhibits leadership, creativity and innovation in its use of social media to engage, educate, recruit, and etc. The agency has a broad and deep understanding of social media use and applies sound governance and strategy in its social media operations. The agency also promotes the use of social networking in law enforcement through its outreach to colleagues and by mentoring others.
The three finalists are:
Chelsea Police, Massachusetts, USA
In a very short time, with superior leadership, the CPD has exemplified a keen understanding of the need for strategic application of social media in policing. The Department strategy began early in 2012. The Chelsea Police Department launched a brand new multi-lingual ChelseaPolice.com web site. The site brought a lot of information for the public to access with social media features such as a blog, Youtube, Facebook, Twitter, and the Chief’s Weekly. Much of this was meant with the idea in mind that the public, and its diversity could follow our activities and become more engaged with public safety and related events. Through Twitter, the Department launched the Tweet-A-Tip Program meant to give crime prevention information to the public to help better police themselves.
Billerica Police, Massachusetts, USA
The Billerica Police Department was a 2012 finalist for a ConnectedCOPS Award in this category. The BPD has focused on increased community engagement with social media. The department has a keen awareness of the true sense of social media by its demonstrated relationship building with the community it serves. It has become a useful tool for many of its residents, young and old. The BPD emphasizes keeping the information current for the residents and the questions asked are answered as quickly as allowed.
North West Motorway Police Group, United Kingdom
The NWMPG is a new collaboration of motorway policing across the 4 police force areas of the North West of England. These forces are Cheshire, Greater Manchester, Lancashire and Merseyside. Only just a year since setting up its Twitter and Facebook accounts, the Group has 20,000 followers/friends. The accounts are known for disseminating news delays due to road traffic conditions, police incidents and rush hour activity. As information comes into the NWMPG control centre from a range of sources, including all the involved police forces via 999 calls and from the Highways Agency, it is related to the public. Social Media is also used to let the public know what success the Group has in policing the Region’s motorways and denying criminals the use of the motorway network. The NWMPG regularly makes arrests primarily for drink/drug driving, disqualified drivers, transport of drugs (recently £500,000 street value seized) and illegal immigrants.
Finalists in the other awards categories will be announced throughout the next several days on this blog. Check back to see the finalists for Social Media Investigator Award tomorrow. Winners will be announced September 25th at The SMILE Conference® in Omaha, Nebraska.
The ConnectedCOPS Awards were created by LAwS Communications with the intent of recognizing the good work being done by individual officers and law enforcement agencies with social media. The international law enforcement community will be considered for these awards. Any officer or agency anywhere in the world is eligible.