Law and Order: Social Media

Unit
The San Francisco Police Department may have
an "Instagram officer," but other forces are
trolling social media for criminal activity too

By Emily Matchar
SMITHSONIAN.COM

August 19, 2015

Earlier this month, the public learned that the San Francisco Police Department has a
dedicated Instagram officer who patrols the popular photo share site in search of
illegal activities. The officer, Eduard Ochoa, had nabbed a minor for illegal firearm
possession after the defendant posted pictures of himself carrying a gun on his
Instagram page, under the username 40glock. Ochoa used the pictures as grounds to
search 40glocks house, leading to his conviction. Ochoas (unofficial) job title as
Instagram officer came to light as part of the court filings.
The story was reported by a number of media outlets in a tone of surprise
the police use Instagram?! But those who follow trends in criminal justice know that
San Francisco is hardly unique.
Police use of the internet and social media has been growing rapidly in the past several
years, and using Instagram to catch criminal activity is only the tip of the iceberg.
According to a 2013 survey from the International Association of Chiefs of Police,
nearly 96 percent of the 500 law enforcement agencies in America surveyed use social
media in some capacity. The most commonly used social media sites are Facebook

(92.1 percent), Twitter (64.8 percent) and YouTube (42.9 percent). Some 80
percent say social media has helped them solve crimes.
There are probably many officers like Ochoa, though police departments generally
dont advertise that fact, says Lori Brainard, a professor of public policy and public
administration at George Washington University, who studies police use of social
media. I think its probably common among very large police departments, she says.
Even departments without dedicated social media officers commonly use Facebook or
YouTube to seek the publics help in identifying or apprehending suspects. A decade or
two ago, police might have sent security camera footage of suspected bank robbers or
muggers to the local news to ask viewers for tips. Now theyre likely to also post the
footage on YouTube or their departments Facebook page.
Police also monitor social media sites in search of postings about illegal activities.
Some law-breakers, especially young ones, seem to forget social media is public or
semi-public. They post pictures of drug use on Facebook or pose for selfies wearing
stolen clothes or jewelry. A young woman in Texas robbed a bank, then posted a
YouTube video bragging about the experience. She was sentenced to 10 to 20 years in
prison. A searched-for robbery suspect checked in to a strip club on Facebook, leading
officers straight to his location.
Community members can purposely or inadvertently draw police by using hashtags in
social media posts. Police might, for example, follow the hashtag
#StateBasketballRules after a local college basketball game. If a picture of an illegal
celebratory street bonfire shows up with the hashtag, police could go to the location
and arrest the revelers. Police have searched hashtags like #420 or #weedstagram to
nab drug users. Citizens also sometimes tweet pictures of vandalism or other minor
crimes at police departments as a way of reporting problems without calling 911.
While Facebook and Instagram are common places to search for criminal activity and
information about suspects, an increasing number of police departments are also using
Pinterest, that bastion of cookie recipes and baby shower decoration ideas. In the past
year or so, a number of departments have created Pinterest pages to use as virtual
lost-and-founds. A peek at the Gloucester Township, New Jerseys recovered property
board shows several pairs of earrings and glasses, two sets of car keys and a cell
phone. The unclaimed property board from the Dover, Delaware PD is heavy on purses
and wallets. Mountain View, Californias lost and found board has several dozen bikes
(appropriate for a city designed to be a bicycle friendly community). Dallas breaks its
board into subcategories: bicycles, jewelry, electronics, sporting goods,
equipment/hardware and miscellaneous.
Other departments use Pinterest as a virtual wanted poster. The unsolved cases
board of State College, Pennsylvania includes pictures of suspected law-breakers:
several Walmart thieves, a couple of young women who used a karaoke room without
paying and "two college aged white males along with two college aged white
females" who stole a floor sign from a Taco Bell.
Social media can also help police reach out to non-English-speaking residents. In
2013, the police department of Alhambra, California, where more than half the
residents are of Chinese descent, became the first PD in the country to start a Weibo,
or Chinese Twitter, page. Many of the posts are merely translations of the PDs
Facebook posts, while some are specifically directed at the Chinese community, giving
information or looking for help solving crimes. Earlier this year, the police department of

Aurora, Colorado, where some 28 percent of residents are Hispanic, created

a Spanish-language Twitter account.
But police attempts to use social media to gather community support can easily
backfire, especially in the current atmosphere of anger about police killings of unarmed
black citizens. Last year, the NYPD asked people to tweet photos of themselves with
officers using the hashtag #myNYPD. While some people posted what the department
had been hoping forshots of themselves smiling with officers at picnics or parades
many used the hashtag to tweet pictures of police brutality.
Unfortunately, Brainard says, its incredibly difficult for police departments to use social
media to both catch suspects and build a sense of community. Residents who feel
theyre being watched on social media are less likely to want to share information with
the police. The feeling of being spied on engenders mistrust. It has a very chilling
effect on peoples inclination to engage with the police on social media, she says.
Posting information about suspects online can be problematic too, Brainard says.
People are innocent until proven guilty. But when a video of you supposedly committing
a crime gets online, it will follow you forever, even if youre found not guilty.
In the old days, if you slapped someones 'wanted' poster in the newspaper
[and] wanted to find that years later, youd have to look through microfilm at the library,
Brainard says. [The internet] has reputation-damaging potential in a way old-fashioned
media didnt.

Five Paralyzed Men Move Their

Legs Again in a UCLA Study
As electrodes on the skin stimulated their spines,
the study participants made "step-like" motions
By Emily Matchar
SMITHSONIAN.COM

August 17, 2015

The five men had each been paralyzed below the waist for at least two years. Some
had suffered sports injuries; others had been in car accidents. Their legs were
completely motionless, unresponsive to any internal or external stimuli.
But, during a groundbreaking new study conducted at UCLA, all five men moved their
legs with the aid of transcutaneous stimulation, or the application of electrodes to the
skin. Its the first time such results have been achieved without surgery to implant
electrodes beneath the skin.
"Until a year ago, if you had a spinal cord injury and you were completely paralyzed,
you had no hope of recovery," says Roderic Pettigrew, director of the National Institute
of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering at the National Institutes of Health, which
helped fund the research. "That is no longer the case."
Over the course of 18 weeks, the five men in the study had weekly treatments. Doctors
placed electrodes on the participants' lower backs and near their tailbones. Then, for
45 minutes, the men were suspended by braces from the ceiling, to take the weight off
their legs, while electrical currents stimulated their spines. The stimulation produced a
step-like motion, like walking on air.
[Transcutaneous stimulation] permits us to stimulate the spinal cord in a manner that
can activate circuits that reconnect the brain to the neurons that control muscles, says
V. Reggie Edgerton, senior author of the research and a UCLA distinguished professor
of integrative biology and physiology, neurobiology and neurosurgery.
Previous studies looked at whats known as epidural stimulation, where patients have
electrodes surgically implanted in their spinal cords. Those studies showed great
promisesubjects with the implants were able to voluntarily move their legs. But
epidural stimulation is invasive, and its difficult to modify the electrodes once theyre
implanted. With transcutaneous stimulation, the electrodes can be moved around as
needed. The treatment is also "simpler to do, cheaper to do and easier to do,"
Pettigrew says. Researchers say the stimulation methods could eventually be used
together to optimize treatment.
Conventional wisdom in paralysis research has long been that neurological circuits are
completely dead. But since the test subjects recovered motion so quickly, its likely the

circuits were simply asleep. This research is especially exciting, Edgerton says,
because it suggests that the electrical current is helping reawaken these dormant
circuits. The results of the research, funded by the National Institutes of Health, the
Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation, the Walkabout Foundation and the Russian
Scientific Fund, were reported in the Journal of Neurotrauma.
Researchers caution that the movement achieved in the study is not walking. The study
subjects were tested while lying down, so no weight was put on their legs. It will take
considerably more improvement to reach a stage where complete weight bearing can
be achieved, Edgerton says.
Future studies will look at whether subjects can indeed learn to stand on their own with
transcutaneous stimulation. The team also plans to study whether the treatment can
help paralyzed people regain bodily functions often lost due to paralysis, such as
sexual function and bladder and bowel control.
We feel that were just scratching the surface, and its going to take a number of
experiments over time, Edgerton says.
Preliminary research suggests transcutaneous stimulation could also be useful for
stroke victims and those with Parkinsons disease. Studies are also beginning to
investigate whether transcutaneous stimulation can help quadriplegicspeople
paralyzed in both their arms and their legs. This presents additional challenges, as
quadriplegics' injuries often involve a greater degree of autonomic nervous system
problems, as well as difficulty controlling breathing.
With proper funding, Edgerton says a transcutaneous stimulation device based on his
team's research could be widely available in as little as two years. About 6 million
Americans are affected by paralysis; 1.3 million of those have spinal cords injuries.
Russ Weitl, 45, was paralyzed below the waist in a rodeo accident in 2011. From the
earliest days after his injury, he was determined to find some kind of treatment that
worked. But a year of intensive physical therapy produced few results. Then, he joined
the UCLA study.
"After not moving my legs for two years, to have control of my legs and be able to
move them was unreal," he says.
Weitl even, jokingly, tried to kick one of the students assisting in the study. To his
surprise, it almost worked. Though the study treatments didn't leave him with lasting
movement once the electrodes were removed, he does have increased sensation.
"The important thing is that [the research] was a proof of concept," he says. "Now they
know it works."

SMARTNEWS Keeping you current

Humans Evolved to Be Moved
by Art
New research shows that while people respond
to art for very different reasons, the ability to be
moved in the first place is universal

SMITHSONIAN.COM
AUGUST 10, 2015

Theres a lot going on in the brain of a person experiencing a painting, movie or other
piece of art. But it doesnt matter whether the art in question is aesthetically pleasing: in
fact, sometimes thats why art is enjoyable. Now, writes Jessica Herrington for SciArt in
America, researchers have found evidence that humans evolved to be moved by art
whether they like it or not.
Aesthetic taste presents a conundrum for neuroscientists: Most seek out some kind of
artistic experience in their life, even if its as basic as having a favorite band. However,
the many ways in which people engage with art are subjective, coming down to
individual tastes.
Intrigued by these differences, writes Herrington, a group of neuroscientists at New
York University took a look at what happens in the brain when people look at art by
examining the neurological pathways responsible for taste.

Differences in subjective experience may arise not only from differences in the
emotions that a given artwork evokes, but also from how different individuals weigh
these emotions, researchers Edward A. Vessel, G. Gabrielle Starr and Nava Rubin
write in the study, which was published in the journal Frontiers in Human Neuroscience.
The team showed subjects a variety of art as their brains were scanned. While
participants feelings about the art ranged from joy to disgust, the study found that
many of them showed similar levels of brain activity, especially if they felt personally
connected to the art, Herrington writes. Researchers concluded that while people are
moved by art for very different reasons, the ability to be moved in the first place is
universal.
While more research needs to be done to figure out why peoples artistic tastes vary so
much, the new research lends credence to the theory that humans evolved to seek out
art for its emotional rush. Now, Frontiers in Human Neuroscience is putting out a call
for more research that studies why people have such disparate experiences with art.
There may soon be scientific evidence for why artists from Georges Seurat to Taylor
Swift have the power to make people grit their teeth in agony or smile in delight.