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Training Cops To Use Social Media Information

jfruh writes "Cynthia Navarro starts her sessions training police to mine social media in dramatic fashion: by quickly finding data about the officers themselves. She also provides information about who's where online — for instance, younger suspects will probably be focused on Twitter, while older folks are on Facebook or even MySpace. 'How much information can be gathered? Look no further than the 2011 Stanley Cup Riots in Vancouver, BC. By examining hours of video and social media posts made during the event, a taskforce was able to post pictures of over 100 suspected rioters online — over 30 of which were identified by police.' It's all part of a drive to teach even nontechnical police officers at small and midsized departments how to use social media to track suspects."

51 comments

  1. I would like to volunteer.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I'm writing a business plan for a company that will teach police how to use Photoshop and similar tools to *make* those look like suspects...

  2. Status update by Dyinobal · · Score: 5, Funny

    Robbing the Exxon at 35 and north street. :)))))))))))))))) Totally gonna get a burrito too.

    1. Re:Status update by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Don't forget the Huggies, and whatever cash they've got.

    2. Re:Status update by CyberKender · · Score: 1

      The really sad part, that's not a joke. I work for a county Sheriff. The gang, detective, and child porn units regularly peruse Facebook/MySpace/et al. There are lots of idiots out there who do things like video tape themselves committing crimes and then post them online.
      As they say, if they were smart, they wouldn't get caught.

      --
      CyberKender
      Apparently Appointed Lord Mayor of There
  3. Only old people ... by anagama · · Score: 2

    Only old people use facebook. Wasn't it just a few years ago that only old people used email? Or was that in the context of texting? Can't remember -- I'm just getting too old for everything I guess.

    --
    What changed under Obama? Nothing Good
    1. Re:Only old people ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      As I recall, a couple years ago the average twitter user was around 41 years old.

    2. Re:Only old people ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      12 is the new 30.

    3. Re:Only old people ... by Intrepid+imaginaut · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I don't think any of the young people I know are even aware of what twitter is. Hope the police didn't pay too much for the training!

  4. Wouldn't this make it easier for... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    ...people to commit crimes? All the little towned cops, crawling facebook an shit, all the while I'm out there.... yeah robbing the Exxon at 35 and north street, running around throwing burritos.

  5. Training Cops To Use Social Media Information... by CosaNostra+Pizza+Inc · · Score: 3, Interesting

    for the following objective: to find the anonymous guy who's posting phone cams that catch police in the act of police brutality?

  6. Young suspects on Twitter, older folks on Facebook by CubicleZombie · · Score: 5, Funny

    Damn, and I've been wondering why nobody's called my BBS in 20 years.

    --
    :wq
  7. Hire me! by TonyAldo · · Score: 2

    AnyPD, please hire me i'll be glad to sit on ass all day and crawl Twitter for suspicous activity while enjoying my Dunkin Donuts.

    --
    tonyaldo.com
  8. And don't forget, kids by fustakrakich · · Score: 1

    You already ARE a suspect... I mean, if you weren't, nobody would be tracking you, right?

    --
    “He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
    1. Re:And don't forget, kids by mcgrew · · Score: 3, Insightful

      To a cop, there are five kinds of people: cops, family of cops, judges and politicians, and suspects.

  9. What kind of training do cops need? by rbmyers · · Score: 3, Interesting

    They are already the most effective street thugs and panty sniffers in society. They don't need the help of social media.

    1. Re:What kind of training do cops need? by mcgrew · · Score: 3, Informative

      Before anybosy mods this guy down, read this newspaper article from yesterday and you'll see why an awful lot of folks loathe and fear cops.

    2. Re:What kind of training do cops need? by rbmyers · · Score: 1

      Or you could refer to https://www.facebook.com/PigStateNews. I wonder if cops read *that*?

    3. Re:What kind of training do cops need? by cffrost · · Score: 1

      "In her lawsuit, Janssen says that an internal affairs investigator for the department told her that deputies often have sex while on duty and that the department would have virtually no deputies left if they were fired for having sex during work hours." -TFA

      It sounds like the solution is to "have virtually no deputies left," then, until they start getting applicants that can follow their department rules and the laws they're supposed to be enforcing. If that doesn't happen, we're likely better off redirecting those budgets to social programs that reduce the number of people that resort to crime in the first place.

      --
      Thank you, Edward Snowden.

      "Arguments from authority are worthless." —Carl Sagan
  10. facebook == stasi by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    stop hurting yourself, leave

    1. Re:facebook == stasi by Seumas · · Score: 1
    2. Re:facebook == stasi by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Facebook is a ponzi scheme, to abuse your private information by corporate elites and government. Even their IPO was a ponzi. Nothing about them is to be trusted, respected, consented to, or believed.

    3. Re:facebook == stasi by Seumas · · Score: 1

      Son, you sound like a terrorist.

    4. Re:facebook == stasi by Em+Adespoton · · Score: 1

      I have no facebook account. I make up for it with a LinkedIn account that doesn't say anything not already available via Google.

      The alternative, of course, is to maintain a few vanity Facebook accounts with your name, but stuffed with all sorts of information that is provably not about you. You can then under oath claim that all of these accounts belong to you, and none of it will ever hold up as evidence in court.

    5. Re:facebook == stasi by cffrost · · Score: 1

      Son, you sound like a terrorist.

      Of course, one person's terrorist is another person's freedom fighter.

      --
      Thank you, Edward Snowden.

      "Arguments from authority are worthless." —Carl Sagan
  11. Training cops by PPH · · Score: 2

    Did anyone else picture some cops performing for donuts?

    --
    Have gnu, will travel.
  12. Social media is easy by water-and-sewer · · Score: 2

    Social media is pretty easy.

    1. Make coffee.
    2. Log in.
    3. Click on LOLcat.
    4. Click on Derpy-looking kid.
    5. Mouse-over raging liberal link to some stupid blog suggesting an undercover cover up.
    6. Click on Rage comic.
    7. Click on link to semi-interested article. Read two paragraphs, then
    8. Click on bikini pic in the sidebar.
    9. Goto 1.

    --
    If this were Usenet, I'd killfile the lot of you.
  13. You have the Right to Remain Silent by RobertLTux · · Score: 4, Insightful

    there is a reason this is listed BEFORE You Have the Right to an attorney.

    Just remember kids Anything You say^HPost can be held against you in a Court Of Law.

    --
    Any person using FTFY or editing my postings agrees to a US$50.00 charge
    1. Re:You have the Right to Remain Silent by cayenne8 · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Yet another reason to not be on Facebook, Google+, Twitter....etc...

      --
      Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
    2. Re:You have the Right to Remain Silent by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The lack of a social media presence is starting to be seen as suspicious - e.g, with the Batman shooter, there were news stories all over CNN, BBC, and other outlets asking why he didn't have a Facebook. We're just in the beginning phases of this, but with Facebook now exceeding a 95% penetration among the 18-30 age bracket, and that being ever more the sole way most people use the internet, it's only going to get worse. Lack of usage of social networking sites will immediately cast suspicion on you.

    3. Re:You have the Right to Remain Silent by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That's in the states. Canada is different.

  14. the trick of it being by nimbius · · Score: 4, Insightful

    scroll down the facebook just far enough to establish the individual has committed a crime, but not so far as to reveal the underlying socio-economic factors that precipitated the crime. refactoring a system of gross inequality is harder than biblical retribution, and it means we dont fill as many prisons.

    --
    Good people go to bed earlier.
    1. Re:the trick of it being by royallthefourth · · Score: 1

      refactoring a system of gross inequality...biblical retribution

      Think of the latter as a step along the way to the former

    2. Re:the trick of it being by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Um, I'm sorry, but those idiots in the Vancouver riots were not rioting due to some grand, underlying, unfair socio-economic factor. Hell, most of them paid for Stanley Cup playoff tickets and tanked up on beer, so they must have had a decent amount of money. They were rioting because they were drunk assholes. If they're also stupid because they thought they'd never be caught and that no one would be able to identify them as they smashed windows and burned police cars "for fun", I have no sympathy.

    3. Re:the trick of it being by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      socio-economic factors that precipitated the crime

      Like having children out of wedlock. Or using crack while pregnant. Yea, totally society's fault.

  15. The new social media is biometrics.. by Penurious+Penguin · · Score: 4, Interesting

    With cameras at every turn reading faces and ears, and pre-crime detectors strewn about public places, the biggest social outlet there is will soon be fed live and directly into their hands. Courtesy of the DHS, we already have talking, listening, spying, interactive street-lights, as well as harebrained projects like FAST (Future Attribute Screening Technology), and backscatter gangsters strolling around.

    An interesting presentation by cryptome on mis-managing the ultimate social media (my take), society itself (in N.Y.), can be seen here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Yn8oy9NHag4#!l -- It's worth a watch or listen.

    I guess f-book and such are still pretty sweet honey pots, but I think such duties will soon be automated enough to allow the average officer to comfortably return to their sticks and pepper-spray without having to endure IT 101.

    --
    Forward! -- Emperor Norton, 2012
  16. I do not exist. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    I have no Facebook, no twitter acc, no myspace, no g+, no iTunes, no cellphone... I am safe!

    1. Re:I do not exist. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Must. Flee. Time. Traveling. Wobbly. Anarchist. Menace.

    2. Re:I do not exist. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      There's more to it than that.
      But basically it's exactly what my plan was.
      This plan changes for me as the laws change.
      For example no hosting websites with copyrighted material. Even if you have permission of the copyright holders, you don't want to become a target of the misguided recording industry who can't see their left hand's activities and copyright permissions while focusing on their right hand. Trust me when I say, the labels don't even know what the law is right now, and you really don't want to be the one targeted to figure it all out for them!

      No domain names. no hosting (although you can setup an emergency rack server dyndns (or others) if everything on the web is down, you can use your own slow home server for emergency communications, something like a passworded KDX server and clients on a WEIRD port to chat, nginx, a light SMF blog, or stock drupal, port knocking front end

      One important one ya missed. No WIFI
      Unless your exploiting someone's unsecured WAN, to post whistle-blower stuff.

      Right now paypal and eBay are barely escaping my shutdowns. I do like to bid on guitars and parts from time to time, but I will let that all go if the law fucks it all up much more.

    3. Re:I do not exist. by Em+Adespoton · · Score: 1

      You just posted on Slashdot. Your IP is logged on a US server. I sure hope for your sake that the next hop on your encrypted proxy tunnel ride goes through somewhere like North Korea....

    4. Re:I do not exist. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No nobody is really safe from this. Do you have friends that report their lives to facebook? Chances are they talked about you and may have even uploaded pictures of you without your knowing. Facebook in turn analyzes these pictures and infers you exist from the images and postings they submit. Facebook maintains more data than what is accessible to the public on their sites, privacy settings or not. They have a 'shadow' profile on everyone they discover, regardless whether they are users of the site or not. Deleting a facebook account does not really delete any information facebook has either received from you, inferred from other data sources or gained from public (and non-public) record search. Chances are good they already have a shadow profile on you.

      It is probably best to avoid all social media services altogether regardless of the hype and peer pressure and FUD propaganda. It's not only giving up your privacy to corporations, governments and intel agencies, it is also the extra time and energy that is expended on something that ultimately does not serve you at all.

  17. Re:but when the Public tracks the cops... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    ...they get beat-up and their cameras get destroyed. http://www.photographyisntacrime.com/

  18. Re:Training Cops To Use Social Media Information.. by Seumas · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Exactly. Before training doughnut-munchers to troll twitter and facebook for information on criminal activities, how about we spend those time and resources educating them on constitutional basics so that they violate those of the people they protect less often? Cops aren't lawyers. Their job is to just sort of enforce laws with blunt-force and let someone else sort things out, later. But imagine if they were educated just a little bit about the constitution? (Cops know nearly nothing about the constitution or the law, hence why they so easily and frequently and STUPIDLY violate it on a daily basis). Give them anything more complicated than giving out parking tickets or responding to a break-in and they're like my dog trying to comprehend string-theory.

  19. Not Sure If Want by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I'm not so sure I want them learning this. In the long run, isn't it better for all of us if they just smash us in the teeth with their batons and move on like normal?

  20. Depends... by Em+Adespoton · · Score: 1

    Does the local donut shop have wifi?

  21. Re:Young suspects on Twitter, older folks on Faceb by antdude · · Score: 1

    What's the number to your BBS? [grin]

    --
    Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
  22. Re:Training Cops To Use Social Media Information.. by thoughtlover · · Score: 1

    I agree that police have no reason to be trolling through social media sites on the taxpayers dime. It's nothing short of illegal surveillance to me. Let the community police itself and inform the proper authorities when they see something wrong, like Craigslist does. Besides, it will get expensive when some idiot tries to intentionally raise red flags making it seem they've committed crimes they didn't, thus leading authorities on a wild goose chase.

    --
    No sig for you! Come back one year!
  23. I am not here by vawarayer · · Score: 1

    I am not here