Right: police investigating the murder of Jill Meagher in Melbourne were disturbed by the potential of "hate pages" like this one to influence the outcome of a future trial.
 Found a word you're not familiar with? Double-click that word to bring up a dictionary reference to it. The dictionary page includes an audio sound file with which to actually hear the word said. |
Arguments showing the positive impact of social media on law enforcement
1. Social media assists in the locating of missing persons and persons of interest to the police
There are a variety of agencies, starting with the police, to who concerned family and friends can go when a person is missing. What the new social media has provided is easy and immediate contact to a very wide range of interested others who may have seen the missing person. The social media also provides a means of contacting the missing person directly if he is she has not been kidnapped or placed under some other form of duress.
Police are commonly considered the primary agency dealing with missing persons. Police in each Australian State and Territory take reports of missing persons and investigate cases, sometimes depending on the circumstances of the case, in conjunction with other agencies such as State Emergency Services, the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, or departments responsible for youth and family services. Police generally limit their investigation of missing persons to cases where there are fears for the safety or concerns for the welfare of the missing person.
The Salvation Army Family Tracing Bureau provides a family tracing service whose primary purpose is to trace missing relatives and reunite families. The Australian Red Cross provides a tracing agency to locate and reunite missing persons in families separated as a result of war, internal disturbance, natural or other disasters. International Social Service of Australia involves social work rather than a tracing agency per se, but provides a tracing service in specific circumstances.
All the above law enforcement bodies, groups or agencies can make use of social media in an attempt to locate a missing person.
Australian Missing Persons Register founder, Nicole Morris, credits social media with being a major factor in helping many Australians find missing family members.
Ms Morris has stated, 'It's an effective and immediate way to reach a huge number of people in a short space of time.
If I've got an urgent missing case then I can post something right away. I've reached so many people and amongst those people I'm reaching, there will be people who are physically and geographically close to where that missing person may be.' Where the police suspect a missing person may be in danger, social media can be a valuable means of making the person's description available to a wide cross-section of the community.
Regarding persons of interest in police inquiries, Facebook has a Persons of Interest site which posts police reports on people of interest to them in their inquiries. The site has received a positive rating from The Western Australia Police, the Queensland Police Service and the New South Wales Police Force.
2. Social media assists in gathering evidence on suspects
Social media are a valuable and increasingly-employed means of gathering information and potential evidence on suspects.
Police regularly canvass the social media, looking at what information is public and sometimes create fake online identities to befriend suspects and view their private information. Authorities also can request private data directly from social networks with subpoenas or warrants, or make an emergency request for user information if they think there's an imminent threat of danger.
These techniques are becoming particularly prevalent in the United States. According to a recent survey of 1,221 federal, state and local law enforcement agencies in America who use social media, four out of five officials used social media to gather intelligence during investigations. Half said they checked social media at least once a week, and the majority said social media helps them solve crimes faster. The online survey was conducted by LexisNexis Risk Solutions and had a 2.8% margin of error. The survey found that Facebook is the most fruitful social network for law enforcement, followed by YouTube.
One pioneer in this emerging area is the city of Cincinnati, Ohio, where police dismantled a local street gang and arrested 71 people in 2008 following a large nine-month investigation that used social media to identify key members. Collaborating with the University of Cincinnati's Institute of Crime Science, the police created databases of information scraped from social networks, existing police records and phone records, then used software to analyse the data and establish links between suspects. As with most police departments, Cincinnati's social-media efforts began small, with a few officers checking online profiles on their downtime. Then police teamed up with the university and received training from social-media experts.
Some 'public' information takes some skill to find. Someone can have their Facebook settings as private as possible, but their friends or relatives might not be as savvy, allowing police to collect information by looking at what a suspect posts on their friends' public pages. Drug dealers have been known to post innocuous public updates that include location information so clients -- and unwittingly, law enforcement -- know where to find them, police said.
3. Social media can be used to inform the public
Police, especially in the United States, make use of social media as a way of warning the public of potential risks. As an instance, at Oakland airport after a shooting in 2012, while the armed man was still unapprehended, police sergeant Chris Bolton quickly fired off a flurry of text alerts to thousands of nearby residents through a dedicated social media tool for law enforcement agencies.
The initial alert warned, 'Stay out of area. Multiple shooting victims reported. Medical on-scene. Police are evacuating a nearby, affected business.' Subsequently the officer kept those in the area informed with alerts such as 'Possible suspect in custody. No imminent public safety threat appears to exist in immediate area.'
Almost 6,000 law enforcement agencies in the United States are now deploying the public notification service Nixle to provide residents with real-time alerts on crimes in progress, traffic messes and missing children. Previously, the service has helped police in Amarillo, Texas, capture a fugitive wanted for aggravated robbery and probation violation; and authorities in Fayetteville, N.C., seized a suspect wanted for armed robbery soon after a Nixle alert was sent to residents.
United States Police officials have made particular use of Nixle in part because of its security features that make it less susceptible to hacking than some social media. Also, the company has a partnership with the National Law Enforcement Telecommunications System (NLETS), which allows local, state, federal and international public safety agencies to exchange sensitive information.
Police have also used social media to improve relations between the force and the local community by creating their own online presence. Social media also provides an avenue to help humanize police departments and show that law enforcement officers are also members of the community they serve. Social media can be an effective way for agencies to highlight their officer's accomplishments, make announcements regarding enforcement campaigns and provide messages.
Within Australia, police have used existing social media rather than the dedicated services being favoured within the United States. By way of example, Victoria Police has a Twitter page, the Queensland Police Force has a Facebook page, the Northern Territory Police Force has a Facebook page and the Western Australian Police has both a Twitter and a Facebook page. Announcing its Facebook page the Western Australian Police stated, 'The WA Police Facebook page provides up-to-the-minute information for the public, covering news, law changes, appeals for information, crash statistics, articles on police events and operations, recruitment particulars, arrests and emergency information.'
In April, 2012, Victoria Police launched a Facebook program called Eyewatch, an initiation aimed at getting online information from the public to help solve crime. The pilot program has six Facebook pages which cover five areas of Melbourne - Darebin, Brimbank, Geelong, Hobsons Bay and Yarra Ranges - and the public transport system. The pages allow people to report anti-social and disorderly behaviour and if the trial is effective, Eyewatch pages will be rolled out across the state.
4. Juries can be trusted not to be influenced by social media
It has been argued that juries are less susceptible to social media influence than many commentators fear. It has also been claimed that the instructions given the jury and the nature of the trial process are likely to outweigh any impressions received from the social media.
In an opinion piece published in The Herald Sun on October 3, 2012, Justin Quill, a director of Kelly Hazell Quill Lawyers, wrote, 'I just don't think jurors will be influenced by what they read on social media in the way authorities fear. A trial will overtake social media in a juror's mind. Imagine the impact of sitting in the front row of a trial for six or eight weeks.'
Justin Quill further explained, 'Imagine swearing an oath to do your duty. Being constantly reminded that you have someone's future in your hands. Now imagine the evidence unfolding before your eyes.
Some witnesses look and sound convincing. Others fall apart under cross-examination. You see witnesses' expressions and hear the intonation in their voices. You might hear from the defendant. You will certainly hear from his lawyers.
All the while, the judge is giving you directions on what you must do.'
Quill concluded, 'Surely that will have much more of an impact than a vague memory of something read many months earlier. Something written by an unknown person about things they're probably guessing at.'
According to this line of argument, the quality of Australia's criminal justice system, especially the quality of the exchange between the defence and the prosecution, followed by the direction of the judge, should ensure that jurors are not damagingly influenced by information they may have seen on social media.
5. There is already significant legal redress available against those who commit online crimes, and gaps in the law are being filled
Legal commentators have noted that although it may be more difficult to prosecute those who commit offences such as defamation or racial and religious vilification online, there laws that still apply and prosecutions can and are made. It has also been noted that many jurisdictions, including Australia, are amending their laws to make it easier to prosecute those who commit online offences.
In defamation law, there can be no doubt that comments posted on social media can be the basis of litigation. In the highest profile such case, a Melbourne resident, Joshua Meggitt, successfully sued author and columnist, Marieke Hardy, after she incorrectly named him as the author of a hate blog. Mr Meggitt then took the fight further, taking action against Twitter, where the defamatory remark was most widely publicised. That case is ongoing.
Many people have called for stronger legal redress against online trolls - those who use their anonymity to launch sustained and vicious attacks on others. However, it has been claimed there is no need for new legislation to deal with this problem as the law prohibiting the use of a carriage service to threaten or harass has been used in the successful prosecution of at least two people in recent years. Many legal commentators note that what is needed is increased public awareness that there are laws available under which action can be taken.
Where Australia's laws do need to be sharpened to deal with the new electronic media there is action occurring to ensure these changes are made.
The state and federal attorneys general have meet for urgent talks about the dangers of sites such as Facebook and Twitter influencing juries and undermining trials. The action was taken after Facebook refused Victoria Police requests immediately to take down hundreds of provocative Facebook messages directed at the man alleged to have assaulted and killed Jill Meagher. The co-chairman of the Law Institute of Victoria's criminal law section, James Dowsley, has supported calls for the Law Reform Commission to investigate problems associated with social media and its influence on juries.
Mr Dowsley has stated, 'People need to careful not to publish anything that might lead to risking a fair trial or interfering in the process of justice.' People have also been warned that even in advance of changes to Australian law to deal specifically with social media crime, they could well have action taken against them under current laws. Victoria Police's E-Crimes Squad is investigating social media posts that appeared to breach the state's contempt of court laws.