Fox 23 news station out of Tulsa, Oklahoma had a recent story that peaked my interest. Gang members in Tulsa are using “social media” outlets like MySpace and Twitter to further their criminal enterprise. This activity is called “cyber banging”, how appropriate. Some law enforcement agencies have been involved in social network sites like MySpace or chat rooms mostly to find sexual predators. However, now you are seeing uneducated gang members (for the most part) adapting their criminal activities to use FREE social media network tools to aid their business efforts. Truly amazing and definitely a challenge to traditional law enforcement efforts. Were the Tulsa police in those social networks prior to “cyber bangers”, probably not. Law enforcement has to adapt to “social media” enforcement now that there are significant criminal activities occurring in these social networks.
Has law enforcement done anything to monitor, obtain intelligence, and or evidence from “cyber banging”? My post on on Social Media Police Officer may not be so far fetched after all. The criminals are not waiting for law enforcement to get into social media. In fact the criminals appear to be ahead of law enforcement in social media. The fact that real gang members are into social media is not surprising. Why? As Assistant Chief LePere mentioned to me in our interview, “social media is a cultural communication change”. People are changing how they communicate and why should criminals be any different. That fact that for years some law enforcement agencies have been going undercover online into chat rooms to find sexual predators is evident that law enforcement is aware of this. But, why the slow response to adapt and to assimilate social media into their overall law enforcement efforts?
Budgets, buy in from executive staff, time, new technology are but a few quick reasons why law enforcement is being dragged into social media. The police in the Tulsa area that are going into the “social networks” where they have identified this activity are having to crack codes to determine what the “cyber bangers” are communicating to each other. These criminals are organized and sophisticated enough to identify the usefulness of using “social networking” Whether it is to communicate a drug transaction or to communicating a retaliation attack on an opposing gang. Think of the ramifications of a well built “social media” criminal network. Faster communication through farther geographical distances, gangs with similar interests may be able to join through networks, better organization of larger gangs, etc. This criminal activity is not exclusive to “cyber bangers”, heavens no what about Al Qaeda. National security is a perfect area for exploitation and use of “social media” tools.
Law enforcement both local and national is going to have to come to grips with the idea that “social media” is being used by criminal elements. There is a need to get into these conversations as undercover officers/agents so law enforcement can attempt to mitigate the criminal activity that is blossoming from “social networking” by criminals. Law enforcement is reactive most of the time, because criminals continue to be creative. The fact that many law enforcement agencies are not jumping into the “social media” pool without first looking to see if the pool is empty is understandable. However, they better look quick and make a decision before they have to play catch up. I look forward to having a robust debate and to continue to be a proponent of law enforcement adopting “social media”.
Twitter
FriendFeed
LinkedIn
Technorati
Facebook
YouTube
{ 3 trackbacks }