Law enforcement

The current use of social media platforms has expanded to wider audiences, including police departments and other law enforcement agencies. The vast material being posted online may lead to it being used by police departments due to social media information being open-sourced. The following study will investigate the police’s use of social media data by collecting qualitative data from crime analysts through the International Association of Crime Analysts (IACA). Participants completed an openended survey describing their experience with collecting data from online social media sources and how it is used to assist with police activity. The results have implications for future research, such as further exploring the methods by which police are expanding their data collection. Caution may be required when sharing information online. Results from the study may inspire future research regarding the privacy and ethical considerations of using social media data collected from the public.

Over the years, innovations such as community-oriented policing, problem-oriented
policing, and hot spots policing have enabled the police to make substantial crime control and reduction gains. However, empirical research has shown that police occasionally misuse these strategies in practice. One possible solution is the co-implementation of these strategies with crime analysis. Yet, little is known about this relationship in practice. Using national survey data collected by the Police Executive Research Forum in 2008 from a sample of over 1,000 United States police agencies this thesis explores this relationship. Results of bivariate analysis between agency commitment to and integration of crime analysis within operations and the use of innovative strategies revealed positive relationships. Additionally, bivariate analysis between agency use of accountability mechanisms and innovative strategies revealed a strong positive relationship. Multivariate regression analysis revealed the use of accountability mechanisms and commitment to crime analysis as strong positive predictors of police agency innovation.