When does help hinder?

There is no arguing that the use of social media has been a great move forward for police and law enforcement in regards to communication.  Never has it been so easier for an officer or agency to send out messages to the public to educate, inform and connect.

When we send out our messages the public can easily share, comment, like and get involved with the communication cycle helping us increase the volume and reach of our message.

There is a dark side to this as well though.  It isn’t all perfect and there are some serious complications that can arise.  While social media is fantastic for our communications, it can be challenge to investigations.

You can’t believe everything you read.

That is not to say that social media can aid in investigations.  It can, it does and in many cases, social media has proven to be the crux of the investigation.  But like with everything that is great, there are bound to be drawbacks.  Here is an example of where great intentions can go wrong.

Recently there was an attempted child abduction in Corydon Indiana.  A young girl was outside of her home when two males in a vehicle attempted to get her.

A very well-intentioned community turned to Facebook to help spread the message and use the power of the crowd to share the information and raise the awareness.  All great stuff.  But, misinformation in the form of the story the descriptions started to creep in.  Vehicles were included in the public posts that weren’t part of the investigation.  Descriptions that didn’t match the suspects.

Lt Detective Nick Smith said, “It’s taking time away from the actual investigations.”  He went onto say, “I think it’s a case of good example of good intent of information being passed by concerned people.” He wasn’t against the public doing it.  He was pointing out one of the challenges of the help.

Every time misinformation gets added to an investigation it takes resources away from the true path of the investigation.  That can cause time delays, false arrests, wrongly identified people, or a complete loss of a case.

So what can you do to help offset this?

Be in the space:  By being part and privy to what’s happening, you can bring the focus back to the facts and provide the factual information you have and direct the public to that information.

Train for the cyber investigation: Officers need to know how to access the information posted in the social space and know what they are doing there.  They have to be able to easily recognize the difference between a share and an original post and follow the route from the leaves of information to the tap-root.

Provide the information:  Why not be the ones who put out the facts first?  That is an easy role to take part in.  Get the facts, provide the facts and re-direct the misinformed public back to the real voice of authority and accuracy.

In the end, there is no way that we can stop the public from adding into the stream nor should we ever!  The public can be, and often is the best part of any investigation so listen to what they have to say.  But you will have to provide information as well.

For the complete story from Indiana, click here.