How are police and the public handling social media and the tactics used in handling the

cases. So, as we all know, social media is something that almost everyone in the world has

heard of. Out of those people that have heard of it, most have a social media account of some

sort or use it in a certain manner. Social media is a helpful tool in several ways because it allows

people that are separated from each other to talk over long distances. It also helps with sharing

information all around the world that many would not be made aware of. It is also a helpful

tool for fighting crime because some criminals give themselves away by posting certain material

on social media, also people can communicate crime that is been occurring in a certain area to

keep people aware and safe. Something that has been an issue with social media is the crime

affiliated with it. Most social media accounts are unique in the sense that many different age

groups use these accounts. In todays generation children have taken off with computer usage

and phone usage and I feel like that leaves them vulnerable to predators or people that are

looking to commit harm. They are extremely easy targets and are usually undetected.

When it comes to monitoring crime on social media, police are usually never the ones

that are catching the crime that is occurring. Citizens that see things happening on social media

or hearing about things happening is a big role in how some criminals get caught. Whenever

citizens get in contact with police then explain what they saw or read on social media, that’s

when police take over and do an investigation of their own. This does save several lives per year

and is a big reason why police urge citizens to be aware of what is going on online and how they

can be made aware of signs of crime.

So how does the public handle social media and what are some tactics? Like I stated

earlier, the public plays a big role in usually being the people that inform the police of what is
occurring. A tactic that has been used in several communities is a national neighborhood watch

program. This is when a group of people come together and form a group with the authority of

their local law enforcement. Police recommend these programs to where police and

homeowners can work together to keep crime under control. So the way this works is you have

a selected amount of people that keep an eye on social media and if there is any crime that is

being posted in an area and the people who are responsible for it. Another key thing is to pay

attention to if someone is acting different. What I mean by this is that most communities are

close enough to where everyone knows everyone. Most the cars are familiar, and people know

when someone is there that usually is not. Whenever someone is acting off or if different

vehicles are showing up to pick up people, this is something that police could be made aware

of. Even though this has no direct contact with social media, most cases of children running

away with adults is whenever the adult messages the child on some sort of social media

platform.

So now that we have discussed some ways that police and the public look for with social

media and how they handle it, I want to discuss some things that could happen if people ignore

social media warnings and signs that crime may be occurring. It doesn’t even have to be a

picture of someone committing the crime. Just by paying attention to simple things like

someone saying that they are going to shoot up a school. This sounds ridiculous but it has

happened before. An example that I can use is the school shooting that involved shooter,

Nikolas Cruz. He was convicted of killing 17 and wounding 15 others in a school shooting at

Parkland Florida. Even though Cruz never posted on social media that he was going to shoot up

the school, he did frequently post pictures of him with guns. He posted things of social media
about him shooting his guns at animals for pleasure. This is a huge warning sign. Therefore,

communities need to be aware of what is being said around their neighborhoods because

imagine what could have been prevented if police were able to talk to the family before this

tragedy happened.

Social Media is something that we are always going to have, I feel like it will never go

away, and it will only get more popular as time goes on. Hopefully later we can come up with

different methods on how to detect crimes sooner so we can prevent more from happening.

Like I stated earlier, social media is not all bad. It is an especially useful tool that is a huge asset

to most people around the world. It is like most things in life, once it gets into the wrong hands,

it screws things up for everyone. Communities and law enforcement are taking the correct

steps to stay ahead of certain crimes that occur online but will need to continue to adapt as the

criminals do.
Work Cited:
National Neighborhood Watch. (n.d.). Social Media and Crime Prevention. Retrieved from:
https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/apa_style/apa_formatting_and_style_guide/
reference_list_electronic_sources.html

School Shooting Suspects Brough to Jail. (2018). Disturbing Instagram posts: What Nikolas
Cruz, suspected in Florida shooting, did online. Retrieved from:
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2018/02/15/nikolas-cruz-who-florida-shooting-suspect-social-
media/340092002/