If you’ve committed a crime, apparently the last place you should hide is in the realm of social media. We recently published a post about real world consequences of illegal behavior on websites such as Facebook and Twitter. Mashable published an article yesterday listing out the 6 Ways Law Enforcement Uses Social Media to Fight Crime, and it appears that the degrees of separation between a criminal and the cops has decreased even more.

Here’s a quick recap of the six points:

1. Police Blotter Blogs – Typically police stations keep a record of the daily activities that occur there, but now “Twitter feeds, blogs, YouTube , and Facebook Fan Pages are being used by captains and chiefs to put out the digital equivalent of the police blotter in real-time.”
2. The Digital “Wanted Poster” – Social media websites are the perfect place to receive “up-to-the-minute updates”, and police department Facebook fan pages now allow the police to post notes and status updates soliciting the public for any information they may have about unsolved crimes.
3. Anonymous E-Tipster – Programs like tip411 created by the CitizenObserver Corporation allow the public to anonymously text tips and/or information about crimes that have been committed.
4. Social Media Stakeout – Police can use social media websites like Twitter to monitor “the bad guys doing bad things”. And, although there may be a certain “big brother” element to this sort of monitoring, they usually only act upon what’s worthy of being looked into and not general, everyday activity.
5. Thwarting Thugs in the Social Space – Given that gang members enjoy social networking sites like Twitter, Facebook and Myspace, “law enforcement [officials have] been able to infiltrate street gangs by posing as fellow gang members online, making connections, and intercepting criminal communications as they happen.”
6. Tracking and Informing with Twitter – Twitter’s proved to be a useful tool for law enforcement officials to track, monitor and share updates about traffic safety for large events or heavy rush hour.

Considering that your local police department has a presence on sites like Twitter and Facebook is probably one of the last things that comes to mind when using social media. However, this shift towards digital policing could prove to be more and more useful for law enforcement to solve crimes. Just recently the BBC reported that Italian police officers used Facebook to track down and capture a notorious mafia suspect, so it should be only a matter of time that criminals here in the U.S. are brought to justice by tech-savvy police officials.

Posted by Adrienne on March 18, 2010 at 11:12am.