The law enforcement agencies at local, federal and international level are monitoring the social media accounts of individuals identified to be threat to the safety of the global community by the use of surveillance technology. The field of monitoring the social media accounts of potential criminals by the law enforcement agencies has grown exponentially. Intelligence about the plans, meting points and residences of these potential criminal individuals is gathered by tracking their status updates and identifying their close followers for possible interviews. Criminals who boast of their activities on the social media are tracked and caught by the law enforcement agencies. In some cases, their online followers and friends are approached so that they can give tip-off information about the where-about of these individuals who pose security threats to the global community.
There are various ways through which the law enforcement agencies monitor the social media accounts of the criminals. Factors such as default privacy settings offer a chance of viewing the user’s online speech to the law enforcement agencies. In some cases, the law enforcement agencies use technology to hack into the inbox of the criminals to screen through their private communications. The law enforcement agencies use technological tools in identifying the criminal networks and their activities.
Delegate your assignment to our experts and they will do the rest.
The use of social media to identify criminals and track them is very effective. The reason for the effectiveness of this strategy is that the criminals are monitored without them even knowing when the law enforcement agencies are tracking them. Therefore, they are caught unaware of the police operation on them and cannot defend themselves by fighting back.
For instance, police in Cleveland managed to crack down on the Heartless Felons gang using the YouTube video posts of a rapper who was associated with this criminal group. In the videos, the rapper admitted to the selling of narcotics.
The recommended strategy for countering social media threats is for the law enforcement agencies to be given the rights of accessing the inbox of the users. With an express right of accessing the inboxes of users, the criminal networks that organize their activities through social media will be defeated since they cannot hide.
