Social Media: Now days not only can someone get information from the television and news papers, there is the internet by which users can inquiry information through search engines on their computers. The Internet purposes a high lever of threat to individuals but an even higher threat for law enforcement agencies and their employees. Waters (2012) has drawn attention to the Internet as: constraints do not exist for social media. Anyone can post anything online with little fear of repercussion. The anonymous online environment can encourage provocative behavior. The anonymous online environment, the capability of being anonymous, copycat behaviors, social media can engender a mob mentality wherein one small stimulus spurs a wide-scale reaction that feeds on itself and grows out of control. Incidents develop faster, reach farther, and spread more rapidly than anything society has ever dealt with. Instant access to private information makes it easier for an …show more content…
Because of social media, law enforcement officers are public figures more so than ever before. Police may have no expectations that there homes and families will be protected from the dangers they face on the job. Motivated individuals could destroy a law enforcement officer’s sense of security without breaking any laws. With cell phone Internet access and a police officer’s name; a hostile traffic offender could have a satellite image of the officer’s home displayed on the phone by the time the officer returns to issue the citation. The social media manager must facilitate the elimination of employees’ personal data from social networking sites and guarantee consistency for all personnel. Most of these websites will remove information if petitioned to do so. Each has its own procedures for making that request. These sites must be monitored to ensure the files do not reappear (Waters,