Social Media In Law Enforcement Essay

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Media is everywhere now days. Whether it is news, or social we cannot really go anywhere without either reading it or posting something to it ourselves. Sometime the things we read or post good and can really help people out. Other times we read something or maybe we are even the ones who post it, and it really is not the whole truth or really demeans another person or persons. In law enforcement this happens all the time and it can either help out an agency or really make a challenge for the department or the officers inside of it. News is everywhere. It is on twenty-four hours a day and thus can report a story as it is happening. This can sometimes be a great asset as we the people are able to hear about incidents either as they are happening …show more content…

Since we live in a world of social media, criminals also use it. Perpetrators will often leave an online crumb trail so easy to follow that the mystery gang from Scooby Doo could solve it. Facebook took off in 2005 and ever since, criminal have been giving themselves away on it and thus making crime solving easier for police officers. There have been many stories of this happening. Recently a couple in Ohio robbed a bank and because of their need to post pictures with stacks of cash from the robbery, police were able to actually see that they were the ones who robbed the bank and thus bring the couple into custody. Another time that Facebook was able to help police was during a hit and run mystery. One evening police received an unusual amount of hit and runs throughout their city and could not figure out who had done it. A few days later they were able arrest the young man after he bragged about being wasted and hitting a few cars to his friends on Facebook. The police were able to arrest him after someone sent a private message to the department after seeing the post on his news feed (Knibbs, 2013). As the world continues to use these social media sites, police will continue to allow the criminal to do them a favor and bring themselves to justice by spitting out their crimes online.
Media is around in everything we do. It may be news anchors trying to get information for their cutting edge news story, or people updating statuses on