Should police be allowed to use social media to search for criminal activity?

It's already happening, and has been for years, at least at the Federal level. I had a friend who was a Federal Marshall and she said internet mining was how they caught many pedophiles and other criminals. Homeland Security is another organization which is constantly monitoring the internet, including social media sites.

I'm OK with it for the most part. My only issue is how easily a hacker can destroy someone's life. Someone creates a fake profile and start dropping nasty comments or pictures and by the time you're proved innocent (if ever) a lot of irreversible damage has resulted.
 

dilettante said:
I think of things like the old cop shows where it seemed like every big crook had an inside man they could call who would run license plates for them or worse.
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Not happening today. Each Police computer terminal requires that the person who wants to use it has to enter their individual access code. Professional Standards units check such things on a regular basis. JimB.
 

Nathan said:
The police can look at anything in public that's in plain sight, that's what we pay them to do. Doesn't matter if its in an alley or online. If police need to look into a secured area they need probable cause and a search warrant.
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OK, @Nathan, I am going to take a stab at this. I attended a 5-hour class on Cyber Crimes at the FBI facility in Harrisburg back about 2000 when cyber crimes were heating up.

You are correct, but there are times when exceptions apply. I apologize, but I don’t have the most current information anymore. I also remember the special agent talking about when there will be instances when time is of the essence. When a child is kidnapped for the reason to sexually abuse the child, cops have less than 5 hours to find that child. Getting warrants in that time frame can be a challenge, especially on weekends.

I am sure laws have changed since then, but our group was told that there are times when police can remotely connect to a person’s computer without first obtaining a warrant. If the police have suspicious activity reported to them, they can collect information from the website that is spewing illegal activity (fraud), hackers or child porn. There were a few other reasons, but they slip my mind. In some cases agents may also view the illegal website’s browsing history without a warrant.

I remember back then getting cellphone information was very difficult without first getting a warrant. I think that still applies today. Why telephones are treated differently that cyber crimes, I do not know. I am no longer in the loop and I have to ask someone whenever I want more information. (More like beg.)
 
I'm sure that if time was of the essence like in a kidnapping, that action would be viewed as justifiable. However, accessing a person's computer would depend on that person practicing really poor security, like having no firewall or VPN. If someone doesn't change their WIFI router user name and password from the default "ADMIN / ADMIN" or password 1234, most any 14 yr. old could break into a system.

Most modern cellphone operating systems(Android, Apple IOS) are encrypted, and therefore impossible to break into. There is some uncertainty in the present, but Samsung's Android system were rummered to have a "backdoor" that hackers and cops could readily use, don't know if that's still true. As for Windows operating systems- they've always had a backdoor...so much for protecting the the user.
 
This is all over my head, except for using back doors. When I would write small non meaningful programs, I would put in a back door, so only I could get back into the program.

I never knew cellphone calls were encrypted. Is there some type of scrambler being used, like what’s used on cable TV signals? This is what’s also used on military radios, or at least, a similarity, like algorithms. Military radios have to be encrypted or scrambled to be effective and not intercepted. Maybe military communications should use cellphone technology?
 
spectratg said:
And I mean in general when there is no specific reason to suspect any criminal activity is being committed.

The libertarian in me says this is just further down that slippery slope where Big Brother is watching you. The pragmatist in me, given the never-ending increase in most types of crime, says the end justifies the means.
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Yes. Yes, I think they should.

I have seen in when doing interviewing for jobs. Companies look up their candidates on Social Media these days. It's just normal.

I watched one of those crime documentaries today, and came across something I wasn't aware of. As part of the investigation the cops wanted to know where the husband had been on a given day. He said he was driving here, driving there. The cops wanted to check, and I envisioned them seeking out security camera footage, the usual stuff. But it went further than that - there's something called Vehicle System Forensics that I knew nothing about. To summarize, various car systems know when you turned left, right, how long you were parked, how many miles you went etc. It was almost as good as GPS! It's a new world.

With the advent of the net, so criminals have become more sophisticated. As such, law enforcement needs to as well.

Cameras are big in the UK. For example there isn't a square inch of the M25 (the London ring road) that isn't recorded and monitored 24/7.. The new ULEZ London charge is fully automated with cameras that record the reg plate of your car with that being sent back to a computer which generates the charge.

Like everything, it'll have to be strictly regulated, but other than that..... yeah for me.
 
has been used for decades ...
stupid criminals will post on a public page and include photos of stuff they stole... police look up someone on FB see their " friends" and that may be their accomplices as well. I do not know why anyone is surprised or did not know it... the private messages can be accessed with a warrant...
 
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Jeni said:
has been used for decades ...
stupid criminals will post on a public page and include photos of stuff they stole...
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This point about how stupid criminals often make foolish mistakes... I'm reminded of a situation on Vancouver Island, which lies off the mainland coast, here in our province British Columbia. Incident was reported (at least here in the west) on CBC, the national Canadian broadcasting system. Happened something over 10 years ago, so I'm pretty sure online surveillance was not nearly as routine or advanced as it now is. But it didn't need to be.

There was this young guy on the Island, a motorcycle rider & enthusiast. He had a very high-power machine, and must have been extremely proud of the machine & his riding ability. He rode his bike out to a very lengthy highway straightaway, and at a time in the latter part f the day when he must have believed there'd be virtually no traffic. He had equipped the bike with a compact video camera (plus audio), with the lens focussed on the speedometer.

Stretches of road on the Island tend to have speed limits in the range of 62 - 68 mph (in the U.S. measurement nomenclature). The guy accelerated up into what I used to think of as Bonneville Salt Flats speeds for motorcycles. The speedometer eventually showed something more than 275 km/hr (over 170 mph)! As later ascertained by police, he afterward rode back to his mother's place and parked the bike in her garage.

His fatal mistake: his exploit was noticed, and he was subsequently tracked down, because he posted video of his adventure on Youtube to impress people who knew him! The vid was still online for quite a while after the guy was sniffed out, his license revoked, and a fine imposed. Can't remember if also the bike was impounded.

The incident occurred a while back now, but I seem to remember the handlebars showed in the vid. May have provided a somewhat distinctive feature of the bike. If that speedometer, capable of registering such a high speed, was still on the machine, that would have obviously been more forensically suggestive.
 
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i think things would be better if people had true prevention..
could social media be used in a "do i want to let all my network know i just got caught in doing X/Y or Z manner"

Many Many criminals have taken photos or video of their crimes and while great for prosecution... we need more then slap on the wrist ... yet prisons are getting or are full we need the shame of the public square like in olden days
a real crime show i have seen ...48 hours it is on A&E i believe.......... they run any suspect / person of interest names through Facebook etc ID the friends and have even talked with some who see "hey i am listed on the Friend list but i do not want to be associated with that"
(Usually all murders on show)

Using social media like town square might work .... Nice page of what ever is already public records ... people could research potential friends/ and avert scams etc... BUT FB would need to clean up fake and scamming profiles and they show zero interest in that.

when someone arrested for theft or fraud or any crime etc ... a notification could be sent out to their friends list ....

when someone on list decides "hey i work at a bank/ school / etc friends with a thief might not look good." ...... unfriend.
 
VaughanJB said:
Don't you wish the police still walked the beat? I don't remember the last time I saw a cop doing that.
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Here in Toronto every one of the 17 Toronto Police Service divisions has foot patrols, and pedal bike patrols on the street, year round. In the 4 downtown Divisions, on the day shift there are 30 officers working in pairs, on the streets. The bike patrols are just the thing to move silently around at night.

Link to TPS photos of foot patrol officers and bike patrol units. Lakeshore foot patrol a welcome sight on street, TTC

The cost of a $1800 mountain bike for bike patrols, is way cheaper than the cost to buy and equip a SUV, plus the officers who ride bikes are much more approachable by the public. Don't get me wrong, TPS still has a large fleet of over 800 patrol vehicles, but the foot and bike patrol officers are the ones who get noticed by the Public . Physical fitness is also a nice by product of the bikes .

TPS also has a 30 horse mounted unit, that patrols all parts of the 245 square miles of the city, 7 days a week. The TPS horses are a cross breed of a standard bred, and a Clydesdale shire horse. This results in a taller, heavier horse, with a calm personality. The TPS horses are purchased at around 5 years of age, and barring serious injury or illness, their Policing career is usually about 20 years. Officers who aspire to join the Mounted Unit can apply, after first completing 5 or more years of general duties. Both male and female officers are in the TPS mounted unit. Each horse has 3 officers who take turns working shifts with that particular horse. The horses are limited to a 6 hour duty day or night. Link. Toronto Police Service mounted unit photos.

toronto police mounted unit horses photos - Bing

JimB.
 
jimintoronto said:
Here in Toronto every one of the 17 Toronto Police Service divisions has foot patrols, and pedal bike patrols on the street, year round. In the 4 downtown Divisions, on the day shift there are 30 officers working in pairs, on the streets. The bike patrols are just the thing to move silently around at night.

Link to TPS photos of foot patrol officers and bike patrol units. Lakeshore foot patrol a welcome sight on street, TTC

The cost of a $1800 mountain bike for bike patrols, is way cheaper than the cost to buy and equip a SUV, plus the officers who ride bikes are much more approachable by the public. Don't get me wrong, TPS still has a large fleet of over 800 patrol vehicles, but the foot and bike patrol officers are the ones who get noticed by the Public . Physical fitness is also a nice by product of the bikes .

TPS also has a 30 horse mounted unit, that patrols all parts of the 245 square miles of the city, 7 days a week. The TPS horses are a cross breed of a standard bred, and a Clydesdale shire horse. This results in a taller, heavier horse, with a calm personality. The TPS horses are purchased at around 5 years of age, and barring serious injury or illness, their Policing career is usually about 20 years. Officers who aspire to join the Mounted Unit can apply, after first completing 5 or more years of general duties. Both male and female officers are in the TPS mounted unit. Each horse has 3 officers who take turns working shifts with that particular horse. The horses are limited to a 6 hour duty day or night. Link. Toronto Police Service mounted unit photos.

toronto police mounted unit horses photos - Bing

JimB.
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Fantastic. I grew up in a time when you saw cops on the beat, but can't remember the last time I did. The only time I see police today is when some crime has taken place. Mind, I do tend to avoid crime hotspots.
 
jimintoronto said:
Link to TPS photos of foot patrol officers and bike patrol units. Lakeshore foot patrol a welcome sight on street, TTC

The cost of a $1800 mountain bike for bike patrols, is way cheaper than the cost to buy and equip a SUV, plus the officers who ride bikes are much more approachable by the public. Don't get me wrong, TPS still has a large fleet of over 800 patrol vehicles, but the foot and bike patrol officers are the ones who get noticed by the Public . Physical fitness is also a nice by product of the bikes .
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I remember seeing officers on mountain bikes when traveling with my wife in the American Southwest, more than 25 years ago. We'd never seen that before. I'm pretty sure the city was Santa Fe, NM. Quite interesting that Toronto has bike patrol units.(y)
 
VaughanJB said:
Fantastic. I grew up in a time when you saw cops on the beat, but can't remember the last time I did. The only time I see police today is when some crime has taken place. Mind, I do tend to avoid crime hotspots.
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The TPS uses the pro active model of Policing, that stresses the need for officers to get to know the people in their patrol area. Yes they respond to immediate calls for service, but during each shift the shift Sgt will detail at least one of the foot patrol pairs to attend a specific location to talk to people on the street, to ask them what they are concerned about. Community Policing works.

I live on a residential street in west Toronto, about 150 meters from a main street. I see TPS bike patrols on my street/neighborhood frequently, as they ride through checking the area parks, school grounds, and the ravine. My house is on a intersection with a 4 way stop sign. Bike patrol officers will set up to watch the stop sign for half an hour, a couple times a week. They also patrol the city park down the street at night for problems.

Traffic stops quite frequently result in finding wanted persons, or making drug seizures. Setting up at a main intersection where left turns are prohibited, allows officers to stop vehicles that just made a prohibited left turn. A $125 ticket, but more importantly, a reason to run the driver on the computer for outstanding arrest warrants, and do a safety check of the vehicle for obvious faults, like worn out tires, broken windshields, and straight piped exhausts.

Using a hand held device while driving is illegal in Ontario, so a bike pair can observe drivers who are stopped at a red light, and if the driver is looking down at their phone, the second bike officer flags them down and writes a Provincial Offence Notice, for $950.00 plus an additional "Victim's surcharge fee " of $250.00 that goes towards compensating victims of crimes. Insurance companies here are notified by the courts when one of their customers is convicted in traffic court, so their insurance rates MAY go up. OR the insurance company may decide to revoke the insurance policy. JimB.
 
JBR said:
I remember seeing officers on mountain bikes when traveling with my wife in the American Southwest, more than 25 years ago. We'd never seen that before. I'm pretty sure the city was Santa Fe, NM. Quite interesting that Toronto has bike patrol units.(y)
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Its not just Toronto. Even smaller Canadian towns have bike patrols in place. Economical and effective. Like Burnaby, or Williams Lake, or Coquitlam. JimB.
 
JBR said:
Jim, my daughter lived in Burnaby for 20 years after graduating from UBC, but is now living in Vancouver. I never say the bike-patrol officers when visiting her in B. So it's interesting to earn that.
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Here is a link to the Burnaby Police bike patrol from 2018. It was stood down for a short period of time, but the Public wanted it brought back. Link. Burnaby RCMP bike patrol back in the saddle Note in the news article that in that time period ( 2018 ) Burnaby RCMP was able to add 14 more RCMP officers to the city . JImB.

JimB.
 
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