An iPhone prototype lost, found, and then sold. A police raid on the home of the blogger who broke the story. In a public relations crisis that is largely eclipsed by the much bigger issues of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill and Wall Street fraud, the Silicon Valley-based Rapid Enforcement Allied Computer Team...
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I thought it might be useful to provide an example of what I am talking about when I say that law enforcement agencies can do more – a lot more – with social media than they currently are. First, Joe the Cop Joe’s latest blog post concerns the beatdown of a compliant motorist by...
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Images in police work typically bring to mind two things: crime-scene photos, and mugshots. The first are not releasable to the public. (Or at least, they should not be.) The second are, but by now they’re run-of-the-mill, Joe the Cop’s blog treatments notwithstanding. So how are images useful for social law enforcement? Take a...
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Every police administrator knows what damage the wrong YouTube video, tweet, or Facebook status update can do. The public seems drawn to “stupid cop tricks,” and it’s never long before the media find out. Once that happens, it’s all over. The media grill administrators for answers. Because an internal investigation is probably ongoing, there...
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Blogging about LinkedIn last time, one thing I neglected to mention was that LinkedIn allows you to “plug in” other applications like WordPress blogs, travel itineraries, Amazon.com reading lists, and Twitter feeds. Those are pretty personal details. Unless your blog and your reading list are purely work-related, you might hesitate to plug them in...
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My last few posts have talked about the differences among personal, professional, and official police presences on the social Web; the need for goals and boundaries; and a little about knowing what the tools are for. I want to focus on one of those tools, in part because it is a good start for...
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