Social Media Use: Benefits & Risks for People & Law Enforcement - Essay Sample

Introduction

According to Stuart (2013), he argues that "social media has spread rapidly over the past decade and it has touched the lives of many people and the law enforcement department and officers." (p. 1). As the social media emergency spreading widely in the country, it has some benefits and risks associated with it that people, law enforced department and officers will come across when they use social media. Based on the point of view of Stuart (2013), any missteps in the use of social media will endanger the secureness of officers and thus compromise criminal offenses which will lead to embarrassment in the law department and disclosure of criminal and civil liability. For the law enforcement department to get rid of risks associated with the use of social media, the department should clearly understand the social media forms existing currently and also the benefits that social media can offer to the department (Lavell, 2018). More so, the department should know the challenges that are posed by social media to the enforcement department and finally the necessity of setting up criteria regulating the utilization of social media by the officers.

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Stuart (2013), he asserts that the term social refers to a two-way communication that involves the interaction of the user and social media source. Also, he defined media as the communication medium that has the intent to sway a large number of audiences. Before the emergence of electronic forms such as the internet which has enhanced social media communication, newspapers radios, and television was the commonly used medium of communications. According to Stuart (2013), he argues that social networking is a social network which enables several people and law enforcement department officers to share information effectively. Stuart identified the following as examples of commonly used social networking Websites, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, and MySpace.

Social media has some crafted words which are commonly used in social media websites such as "tweet" and "wall." For example, the user of Twitter websites mostly uses the term "tweet" as the text-based sharing of data. On the other hand, Facebook users commonly use the word "wall" to refer to their profiles where information on social media can be shared.

The Institute for Criminal Justice Education (ICJE) carries out a survey of 2011 about social media enforcement law. The institution found that almost 78% of law enforcement respondents were with active social media accounts (Lavell, 2018). The results furthered showed that the individuals who give details or identified themselves in social media profiles were police officers were over 38% (Highland, 2011). Thus, the finding from the survey conducted depicts the interest law implementation officers have on social media websites such as Facebook and Twitter. Also, we get information about officers to decide to identify themselves on social media.

According to Stuart (2013), he argues that "for the law enforcement department to benefit, the law implementation agencies should adopt the social for public relations criminal investigations and crime preventions" (p. 2). Once the department is with the social media websites, it creates doors of conversation with the public thus the citizens will be able to receive real-time notification and in return, the department will receive suggestions and tips that can be utilized in solving crimes.

As a means of setting up a solution, officers are not anticipated to refrain from upholding social media existence on the internet. However, law implementation agencies should come up with a criterion for social media website usage that will help in balancing the constitutional rights of enforcement officers as they protect the integrity of investigations and law departments. According to Stuart (2013), he asserts that "the findings of 2011 ICJE survey is that 40% and below of the responding agencies set up policies governing the use of social media and less than 15% had provided training to their officers on what was appropriate to post on the social media as a professional.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the law implementation administrators should create appropriate regulations over the usage of social media websites and what to post for it to increase the advantages for their departments and eradicate the incidents of misuse by department officers. Hence, to achieve more benefits in the law departments and investigations, the department must set up strict criteria for social media usage and also train personnel on the implemented policies (Stuart 2013, p. 3). Thus, putting the policies in place is a clear capacity that social media as a law enforcement tool aid the law department to serve the citizens efficiently.

References

Highland, D. (2011). KSP turns to Facebook as an investigative tool. Bowling Green Daily News. Np, 3. Retrieved from https://www.bgdailynews.com/news/ksp-turns-to-facebook-as-investigative-tool/article_00d04894-3a41-59b5-96f5-631ac03ed070.html (accessed September 19, 2012).

Lavell, P. J. (2018). Social Media and Its Role in Criminal Investigations: The Consensus and the Controversy (Doctoral dissertation, Utica College). Retrieved from https://search.proquest.com/openview/bc0329f15603431e766af2e331b7c805/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=18750&diss=y

Stuart, R. D. (2013). Social media: Establishing criteria for law enforcement use. FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin, 82(2), 1-3. Retrieved from https://leb.fbi.gov/articles/featured-articles/social-media-establishing-criteria-for-law-enforcement-use