By: Kyle Porter
With the recent news of the bombings during the Boston Marathon flooding all major news outlets, I found an interesting video on the New York Times website that talks about how social media will be used to help with the investigation of this atrocity. This video is relevant to several topics we have discussed in class including surveillance, privacy, and community policing.
(Video comes from New York Times website, so it cannot be easily imbedded. See video here)
Before the technology of smart phones and social networking, police investigating acts of terrorism like the bombings that occurred yesterday in Boston would have been limited to the footage from a fixed angle surveillance camera of event. Thanks to the advanced technology of smart phones and social media, police can investigate thousands of hours of video footage of the event in hopes to find the people responsible for such appalling acts of terrorism. Boston police and investigators are urging anyone with pictures or video footage of the event to bring the information forward and assist in the investigation. In a case like this, anyone taking pictures or filming the event was essentially holding a surveillance camera that could contain key information for the investigation.
Police are also using social media outlets like Twitter and Facebook to assist in the investigation of the Boston bombings. Over the past several years, police have been increasing their use of social media to help with investigations. Social media like Twitter and Facebook can be utilized in several ways including to solicit tips from the public. In 2012, nearly 60 percent of police agencies are now soliciting tips from the public via social media. This is a great example of modern day community policing, a topic we have discussed several times in class.
David Petty, interviewed in the video attached, is the Vice President of X1 Discovery, which is one company helping mine through social media outlets as part of the investigation of the Boston bombings. Petty says that social media can be used as a good investigation tool because investigators can search by geographical location, event name, keyword, or by individuals. He believes that social media will play a key role in the investigation of this event.
With lots of negativity directed toward social media and smarts phones as they are labeled as intrusive and a violation of people’s privacy, it is nice to see that they are being utilized positively to help catch the people responsible for the Boston bombings.
The proliferation of the volume and ease of media-sharing in recent years is a fascinating phenomenon. With the presence of social media, one could see multiple angles, locations, and perspectives of the incident, and as you mentioned, were of significant importance to authorities in their investigation.
ReplyDeleteHowever, as seen in the days following the Boston Marathon incident, social media and crowd-sourcing can have its downsides when it comes to investigations. The wide accessibility of such media lead to others doing their own amateur investigations and led to dubious and "universally wrong" conclusions. These had negative consequences, such as a teenage boy being wrongfully and widely accused as being a possible suspect, even by some media outlets as it circulated the Internet. Many other pictures and accusations circulated the Web, including that of a missing university student, which were erroneous. Law enforcement officials recently stated that the FBI's release of the pictures of the suspects were partly motivated to reduce the amount of potentially harmful Internet vigilanteism that was ongoing.
Although the ubiquity of social media can be used as a useful investigation tool by investigators, it can also be an impediment to the investigation if that same social media is irresponsibly used. Hopefully, the Boston incidents can be learned from and temper or prevent future similar occurrences revolving around active investigations.
Social media has been found to be useful in solving many crimes in the past years. This is a good thing. Anyway, social media sites require voluntary membership. Once you join, you are giving up some of your preciously-held privacy. This is why they are called 'social'. If you want to remain anonymous or don't want to be found out, stay away from posting about yourself. Don’t even think of opening an account, in the first place.
ReplyDelete-Sehun Lee
I would say that this is one of the most interesting findings regarding surveillance and policing in this modern society we live in. As I watched the progress of the investigation and the fast developments since last Thursday night, I could not stop thinking of all of the things we've learned in this class. Boston Police as well as the FBI and other high profile agencies have relied heavily on the public's help to identify and finally track the individuals who committed this horrifying crime through a cell phone that was left in the back seat of the car hijacked on thursday night. As we have seen in our class, the use of media is important, however, this sort of partnering professional policing with the help of outside sources is very normal and almost indispensable in catching the bad guys. Remembering our visit to TARGET corporation and the use of surveillance is what ties it all in.
ReplyDeleteI agree that the combination of individual social media with the government surveillance cameras on that street will be very useful in finding those responsible for the Boston bombings. The use of the social media in these investigative procedures also allows the public to take part in determining who the perpetrator(s) are. But this leads to suspects being virtually stigmatized and physically harassed.
ReplyDelete-Tiffani Toy
It's amazing now how much technology is advancing, and how there are so many different ways that social media is being used. These days everyone has a phone that has a camera. Or now even high quality cameras are becoming cheaper, so many more people can buy them. It's very good that media can be used to help solve investigations like this, and it's nice to see that wrongdoers can be caught. I think it's important to keep in mind though that videos can sometimes be misunderstood. Like watching a movie, we all have different interpretations of what happens. So looking at footage taken by any individual could be misleading to an investigator or anybody. This can cause problems in future cases, possibly causing the arrest of an innocent person.
ReplyDelete-Alex Juha
I agree that the use of social media can be used in a positive way as we saw with the Boston bombings. The capture of the suspects responsible for the bombings came from surveillance that many believed broke privacy laws. This makes me torn between what is right and wrong with these types of surveillance and the use of social media. On one side I can see how people's privacy may be invaded but on the other side, it is very helpful in special cases as this one.
ReplyDeleteThis has the potential to cut the costs of police surveillance. If private citizens voluntarily upload footage of illicit activities they witness to social media sites, police wont need to place cameras everywhere.
ReplyDeleteI think social media is a legitimate way to investigate criminal actions. It is also a useful tool to spread the word about potential threats and fugitives that are on the loose. The advancement of technology has definitely made it nearly impossible to get away with criminal acts.
ReplyDelete-Eric Walbridge
While social media has been helpful in the Boston bombings, there still needs to be some method of control. I agree with some of the people who are saying this can lead to harassment or misidentification. This was seen in the aftermath of the bombings. There was a lot of pictures being shared on facebook on possible suspects who had nothing to do with the bombings, as well as a lot of misinformation of the victims who died.
ReplyDelete-Maria Campos