[View the story "Big Brother or clever crime fighting? " on Storify ]Big Brother or clever crime fighting? Police use of social media raises concerns about privacy. Storified by The Stream · Mon, Feb 20 2012 12:39:54
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Some social media-savvy police departments have used Facebook to post photos or facial composites of suspects to crowdsource identification. According to
The Next Web , the Hannover police in Germany have arrested eight suspects from Facebook tips that came from the nearly 100,000 people who "like" the
page .
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Many images and facial composites like these below were uploaded to Facebook before German authourities ruled that the photos should not be hosted on servers outside the country. Some images are now available on the official police
website .
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The
Singapore Police Force employs a similar tactic, captioning photos or videos taken from closed circuit cameras with a short description of the alleged suspect, crime and location.
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Twitter has also been used in missing person searches in North America. The hashtag #findpearl was used for a British child who was taken without consent to Toronto. After a search that included a variety of social media tools, including the QR scans shown in the second video below, she was located in Toronto in 2011.
Help Find Pearlpaisleyrae
QR Codes To Find Missing Persons | Wanted Fugitives #FindPearlcsiworld
A Wikileaks file revealed the extent to which telecommunication companies monitor information. An
interactive based off Wikileaks data shows surveillance according to technology and country.
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In the wake of the large riots in Vancouver after the Stanley Cup hockey final game, police created a website with images and video of alleged rioters, taken from closed circuit cameras and social media sites. The public is able to help identify the subjects, who may be charged.
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In Seattle, reported crimes and incidents are
mapped by both police and residents across the city.
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Greater Manchester Police's
@gmpolice is one of the most popular law enforcement accounts on Twitter. Their social media division also includes accounts for 91% of its community policing teams, which residents can contact directly.
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Comments from Emma Carr, deputy director of
Big Brother Watch , an organisation that aims to expose the scale of surveillance (including that of social media) in the United Kingdom.
Privacy Clipajstream
Twitter was used extensively in the UK riots of August 2011 by both rioters and police. During the riots, @gmpolice's followers grew to over 100,000 as police used it to spread information and dispel the many rumours online, shown in this Guardian
interactive .
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Police officials are linking social media with advanced new facial recognition technologies. The US government is also overhauling the FBI's existing fingerprint database to include facial recognition, with a planned launch in 2014.
Colossus Facial Recognitionomniperception
Local police departments are also participating in a Department of Justice program outfitting officers with iPhones that perform facial recognition, comparing against the Department of Motor Vehicles' photo database.
Mass. Police Get Facial Recognition App For iPhonespigmine2
This comes in a year when American police have attempted to limit citizen journalism and social media, particularly at Occupy protests. The US First Circuit Court of Appeals dismissed a case in which Massachusetts police attempted to charge a citizen filming alleged police brutality with warantless wiretapping. The Oakland Police Department received free facial recognition software to use on footage from Occupy Oakland protests, according to
local .
Indybay
According to this
survey by the International Association for Chiefs of Police's Center for Social Media, 81% of 800 law enforcement agencies in the United States use some form of social media.
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On Tuesday, the US passed a law requiring the Federal Aviation Agency to "allow police and first responders to fly drones" under a certain weight (2 kilogrammes) at an altitude of under 120 metres. New models of unmanned aerial vehicles can be controlled via smartphones, as shown in the video below.
AR.Drone Best Of User Videos #2ardrone
A US military veteran recently posted parody parking signs around New York City to raise awareness of the growing use of drones.
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Police forces also use their social media to engage with the public. The below video is a recorded livestream with the Brighton Beach Police Department, where the spokeswoman and an officer answered questions from viewers about a recent case.
BBPD Live Chat 9/24/11bbpdmediarelations
The US Congress recently held a session on the Department of Homeland Security's monitoring of social media.
Subcommittee Chairman Meehan Opening Statement at Hearing on DHS Social Media Monitoringhousehomeland
A video comment from Mark Lerner, a specialist on biometrics.
Mark Lerner.movajstream
The chief of a Kenyan village is also on Twitter. According to an interview with the Associated Press, his tweets are forwarded via SMS to thousands of the village's residents.
LOST MAN PAUL NJUGUNA GITAU OR BABA GITAU BORN 1953.BROWN 5.5FT TALL.WEARING BLUE SHIRT.GREY TROUSER BLACK SHOES..RESIDENT OF NDIMuChiefkariuki
Mr Weru from Ndege reports theft last night of 4bags of maize, 4debes of beans and 1debe of wheat were stolen.pls lets me know incase.Chiefkariuki
