Social Media

social media and law enforcement

Should Prisoners Have Access to Social Networks?

by Mike Vallez on December 5, 2010

Social Media in Prison

Personally, I feel if you are in prison you should lose the right to have access to social media, social networking, and people in general. If you have made it to a prison cell you have been convicted of a crime by a judge or jury, thus limiting your rights. Kind of like being a kid who gets in trouble in kindergarten or grade school and gets a time out. The kids in time out aren’t watching TV, playing video games, talking to other kids or updating their status on their Facebook pages. According to a Police One article an inmate named Justin L. Walker has pictures of him smoking a bong, licking a shiv (homemade prison knife), and holding a bottle of booze (other inmate holding a bag of weed). How is this possible? While these may not be 100% authentic (weed & booze), the flame is as well as the picture of the shiv.

social media and law enforcementsocial media and law enforcement

The above pictures were easy to find through a search on Facebook for this guy. Besides stupidity for 1) taking pictures of potential criminal activities, 2) posting them on Facebook profile or 3) having someone else post on Facebook profile, why does this guy have access to Facebook, a cell phone or camera? Bottom line, this guy killed a Sheriff in Oklahoma and he has numerous other criminal charges and should not have the freedom to do this. Do we want people like this on Facebook? Do you want this guy friending your child, girlfriend, mother? I don’t. The obvious security risks posed by an inmate having access to communicate on a social network are dangerous. While law enforcement has been slow to deal with social media, apparently, the correctional system should be working on plans to prevent inmates from participating in this type of communication. What do you think? MV

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mobile video

Is your organization ready for the mobile video explosion?

by Mike Vallez on November 13, 2010

A recent article by GoMo News, “Mobile video use explodes for YouTube” is very telling about the increase of mobile video consumption. Even more telling is a recent article by YouTube’s own blog, “Great Scott! Over 35 Hours of Video Uploaded Every Minute to YouTube.” It is rather apparent that we are in the midst of a video content creation explosion the likes that this world has never seen. This may sound dramatic, but lets look at some of the stats these two articles present.

-75% of YouTube users say mobile is their primary way to access YouTube
-35 hours of video uploaded a minute, equates to 2,100 hours of uploaded video in an hour
-50,400 hours of video uploaded daily to YouTube
-70% use YouTube’s mobile site a least once a day

The increased mobile use and the increase in upload of video content goes hand in hand and you can see that YouTube, the worlds largest video social networking site and second largest search engine continues to grow. Some reasons for the increased upload of videos are the increase in length of uploaded videos by YouTube, the continued technological advances in mobile handsets (iPhone, Droid X, etc) and portable video devices (Flip, Kodak, etc.) as well as the increased use of YouTube’s api allowing for upload of videos from other social networking sites, video games, and other online communities. But what does this mean for corporations, law enforcement, and people in general?

One of the biggest issues that corporations, law enforcement agencies, and people are going to have to come to grips with is that video will soon be on the web as fast as Tweets. Now this is already happening to a certain extent with more tech savvy social networkers, but prepare yourself for the masses to become instant reporters of police brutality, poor product performance, failed product performance, poor service and the list goes on. Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube continue to change the way people consume information, but if you notice YouTube videos are shared on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, email, blogs, etc, which allows for continued growth of mobile video consumption and content creation.

Is your organization prepared to deal with the ramifications of the video world? I would like to hear from you if you are experiencing challenges from the new video age we are living in. mike@michaelvallez.com.

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law enforcement blog

Is Video Taping The Police Legal?

by Mike Vallez on November 11, 2010

Police work changed as a result of the Rodney King beating video that was recorded by bystander George Holliday on March 3, 1991. At the time mobile video recording was relatively still new. But, the recorded images of Rodney King being beaten transcended anything he did prior to the video captured beating by LAPD officers. What about now? How is video capturing effecting police work today in 2010 almost 20 years later? Here are some examples of recent news articles involving mobile video recording of law enforcement:

1) Gizmodo- Are Cameras the New Guns?

2) Cato@Libery.org- “Privacy” v. Justice: Wiretapping Case Update

3) Aolnews.- Video: Cop Socks Girl During Jaywalking Stop

With the technological metamorphous that is occurring in mobile video technology it is only a matter of time before there will be no expectation of privacy, if there is not already. Currently with my iPhone I can capture high definition (HD) video, edit it on my iPhone, and upload it to YouTube within a few minutes. Additionally, USTREAM allows for live streaming of video content from mobile devices, laptops, and desktops. But, what are the laws pertaining to uploading of mobil video content?

There is no single law that controls video recording, it is basically a state by state decision, but here is a rough explanation of video recording laws (also known as wiretapping laws) recording/wiretapping throughout the United States: Video recording is legal in public, if there is no expectation to privacy where/when the recording occurs. But, this law differs from state to state so be sure to check out The Citizen Media Project for specific laws for each state. Most of the above articles make it clear that law enforcement as well as normal citizens have little expectation to video privacy while in a public setting. What say you? How do you think mobile video capturing and uploading is going to change your life?

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Android Bar Codes Make App Downloads/Purchases Seamless, Why Isn’t Apple Doing This?

by Mike Vallez on October 11, 2010

Being a “Fan Boy” of gadgets, mobile devices, and technology overall I was extremely impressed when I scanned an application into my Android “Droid X” smartphone the other day. This was by far one of the coolest things I have experienced since becoming a “technology geek.” The technology is a 2D bar code similar to the bar codes on most products we purchase at stores, but there is a twist. This bar codes is made for cell phones/smartphone cameras. There are several of these types of bar code formats as follows: 1) Semacode, QR Codes and Data Matrix (Wikipedia) which are optimized for cell phones. Here is how it works. I downloaded the CNET Scan and Shop onto my Droid X. Then I went to appbrain.com and selected an application, any one will do. You then take your scanner app open it up to the scan functionality and hold it up to your computer screen. The CNET app makes the sound like you hear at the supermarket during checkout and you are asked if you want to download the application. If it is a paid application you will have to go through the purchase process, but if not you tap install and the app is downloaded onto your device.

mobile media

This technology has been around for awhile and In fact I even saw this at Best Buy yesterday while walking down the main isle in the store. Best Buy was using the these bar codes for information on DVD’s and CD’s. In the not to distant future you will be using this at Walmart, Cosco, or any other store to scan your own retail items to determine the cost of those items. More than likely you will be purchasing products at your favorite stores and checking out on your smartphone before you know it. Use your imagination and you can quickly see how powerful smartphones will be as their cameras and overall functionality increase. MV

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How To #Fail At Twitter In 4 Easy Steps

by Mike Vallez on August 7, 2010

Update: 08/09/10 - The failure mentioned in this post was from a personal Twitter persona standpoint. This article chronicles how I lost my way Tweeting on my personal Twitter account with friends, associates, and people I meet on a daily basis. From a corporate perspective I see Twitter activity based on scalability and mission. Additionally, the intent of this blog post is to have a follow-up post that chronicles how I successfully regained my positive Twitter persona in 4 Easy Steps, look for this in a day or two. MV

Prior to 02/2009 I never participated in any social networking sites. Then a friend introduced me to WordPress blogging and Twitter. The result was an injection of social networking into my life that I had never experienced before. I became an active Twitter persona Tweeting daily and meeting new people regularly. There was a satisfaction of connecting with people all over the world with like thoughts and sometimes argumentative thoughts. All the same I was having conversations daily with cool people all who I met on Twitter. Then something happened that one would expect would increase a social networkers presence on Twitter.

July of 2009 I was transitioned into a full-time position as “Social Media Strategist.” Initially, I found myself Tweeting as I had prior to assuming this title, but slowly over a period of 6 or 7 months I fell off the Twitter grid. My failure was not due to lack of social networking enjoyment, it was due to scalability. During this time I had created 2 more personal Twitter accounts and 4 corporate Twitter accounts. As most of you know, trying to keep conversations going on 7 different Twitter accounts is impossible, even using TweetDeck, Seesmic, HootSuite, etc.

Here is how I failed in 4 easy steps:

1) Lost my purpose - The purpose of social media/social networking is to build community and community comes first. The minute you take your eye of this purpose in the social realm you may as well close your Twitter account. I took my eye off community in exchange for a larger community. Due to scalability I #Failed at building community and I lost my purpose on Twitter.

2) Too Many Twitter Accounts – The time it takes to cultivate and nurture conversations on a Twitter profile is significant. To continue an authentic conversation requires time and when I became responsible for 7 Twitter accounts I became overwhelmed. Granted 4 were outward facing communication channels, but nonetheless this contributed to my Twitter #Fail.

3) Went On Auto Pilot – Using HootSuite or another Twitter client to schedule Tweets is great, but once I traveled down this path it led me to lessen my non-automated Twitter activity. I let my accounts become robotic and people don’t respond to this type of social networking interaction. Even if your a Twitter celebrity, people are quickly able to discern the difference between an auto tweet and a real tweet. People want authentic conversations and by going automatic I #Failed.

4) Lost Interest – I know what your thinking, you #Failed on Twitter because you just got bored with it? No, I lost interest due to the 3 reasons above. My Twitter conversations dwindled and people lost interest in me plain and simple. I took myself out of the conversations and found myself a little lost trying to get back into the conversation.

People are smart and those on Twitter want to be engaged with other’s or they would not be there. Once you lose purpose, try to manage too many Twitter accounts, go on auto pilot you will loose interest in your Twitter activities. The simple reason is we as people can only focus on so many things and doing the above causes things to go out of focus. I encourage you to avoid the 4 steps I list above and keep your Twitter interest alive and well. MV

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What is Privacy? 5 Common Sense Tips While Social Networking….

by Mike Vallez on June 4, 2010

social media five-o

What exactly is considered private when it comes to social media and social networking? Since becoming involved in social media about a year and a half ago I have been a little astonished at what people share about themselves. MySpace has been the social networking website where both men and woman pushed the limits on how much skin is showed in uploaded pic’s. Seems like Facebook has surpassed MySpace with lack of clothing pic’s due to the shear number of users 465,564,340 (via http://www.checkfacebook.com/) and the numerous men and women in their undies, bikinis, or less.

I am not a prude and am not against girl’s in bikinis (not into guys in underwear), but there seems to be a lack of modesty and forethought when it comes to information (pics, videos, crazy status updates) being placed on social networking sites. Once information is placed on the web, you should assume it will live on the web forever, yes forever. People can save any images or text with a simple right click of a mouse and don’t assume because your privacy settings are set on Facebook or other social networking sites that any of your risque information won’t show up on the web (so called friends can share your information).

Another security/privacy issue to be considered while participating in social media/social networking is GPS location services. Foursquare, Twitter, Facebook, and most other social networking sites allow you to provide your GPS location. As a retired police officer I do not think this is the best of ideas for personal security reasons. There are websites like pleaserobme.com that are placing your GPS locations on their website once caught off the web from status updates along with the fact that you are not home encouraging criminal activity or at your residence i.e: burglary because you are most likely not at home.

Below are 5 common sense tips on how to prevent from unwanted privacy intrusions:

1) Don’t share naked pictures of yourself unless you are ready for the consequences – Hmm, what will my parents or kids think?
2) Don’t put anything into a status update you don’t want recirculated on the web – My boss John Doe is a #$%^.
3) Ladies turn off your GPS notifications from all social networking sites so you are not advertising that you are alone at a bar at 2am – There are creepers on the web you know.
4) Don’t always trust a picture of an individual on a social networking site because they are attractive – Things are not always as they appear.
5) Don’t list your cell phone number on Twitter, Facebook, or any other social networking website if you don’t want your privacy invaded – Ladies really, weirdos will call you.

As social media continues to change our culture our definition of privacy seems to also be changing. What was private 5 years ago is now a profile picture on Facebook or a status update on Twitter that potentially millions of people can see. I am not throwing rocks from my glass house as I have violated my own common sense rules a time or two, but consider your privacy current or future when participating in social media and social networking sites. Mike Vallez

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Social Media In law Enforcement Conference, Success!

by Mike Vallez on April 19, 2010

It was a great honor to speak at the 1st annual SMILE conference a little over a week ago in Washington DC. I was fortunate to meet a bunch of folks who I have met on Twitter, but had never met in person. I would also like to thank Lauri Stevens from ConnectedCops.net for organizing and running an excellent social media law enforcement conference. If you were unable to make it to the event here is a brief run down of Thursday 04/08/10 presentations.

The morning started off with Jack Holt from the DOD discussing how this organization is reacting to the changes in communication that is occurring via the internet. Social media networking sites, blogging, real time information and how the leaders at the DOD are dealing with this new media. The next set of presentations was a tag team effort by Chief Alexander of Boca Raton PD and his PIO Mark Economou. They discussed together “building a brand” as a law enforcement agency and how the Boca PD is adapting to the new media change. It was definitely enlightening to hear how their department has adapted to the new media changes. One specific example is how they only distribute press releases via Twitter or Facebook. They have conditioned the “media” to adapt as well and there has to be some satisfaction on being able to better control your communications plan. The morning came to an end with my presentation on podcasting. This was a 101 level presentation to explain what “podcasting” is and how easy it is to actually do. Podcasting is a digital media file (audio or vide) that can be subscribed to, but ultimately is downloaded from the web. A podcast is extremely easy to share because it ends up as a URL, which can be Tweeted, sent out as a status update, or emailed, etc. Mike Bostic, former LAPD Deputy Chief with Raytheon and Matthew Le Veque of the Rogers Group discussed social media and systems integration, which frankly is mind blowing. Sgt Tim Burrows from the Toronoto PD had a great chat about maximizing social media results with the minimal tools at hand, ain’t that the truth. The most interesting, yet scary presentation was from Peter Berghammer who discussed “hacking” attacks and how to deal with them. The day wrapped up with our European friends Mike Alderson, Marga van Rijssel, and Gordon Scobbie all discussing various efforts they are making in social media across the pond.

The evening “town hall” style conversation MC’d by Mark Economou (excellent job) was a fantastic conversation regarding social media in law enforcement and social media and national security issues. Thought such as, “what happens if power goes down, cell tower connectivity goes down, or you are hacked beyond immediate repair, huh? These questions are tough to answer and as Jack Holt eloquently stated “we have a of a lot of duplicate technologies, but not a lot of resilient technologies.” Social media and new media are changing the way people become informed so much so that in the near future you will probably see law enforcement officers wearing camera’s as part of their normal duty gear to protect against altered video from a citizen. Scary, but reality. MV

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Banning Sex Offenders From Facebook, Twitter, Long Overdue!

by Mike Vallez on March 12, 2010

A recent article from Southern California Public Radio touts a couple of California state law makers that are attempting to pass a law to make it illegal for sex offenders to use social networking sites that children, kids, teens may frequent. I applaud Assemblywoman Norma Torres for getting legs on this topic, but reading this article leaves me wanting more.

Banning “sex offenders” from Facebook, MySpace and other social networking sites seems like common sense. If we are going to pass laws that prohibit a convicted sex offender from coming within X amount of feet from children then why not have the same standards for social networking sites for these scarlet letter criminals? In my opinion it is much easier for a sexual predator to manipulate a child/young adult online from the privacy of their own home, where no one can see their activities. Sexual predators use social networking sites on a regular basis (pedophiles online ) to cultivate leads for offline conversion of their illegal sexual activities. While not all “creeps” on Facebook are sexual predators, seems like a no brainer to enact a law that requires sex offenders to register with all social networking sites as sexual predators.

I know what your are thinking, you are thinking “what if the sexual predator” makes up a false name? Yes, they could surely do this and it would be hard to enforce. In fact even if the proposed legislation passes, how is it going to be enforced? As stated in the article by the Santa Ana Police Chief Paul Walters “it would be a deterrent for registered sex offenders.” That is true, but include the registration or “no fly social networking list” for sexual predators and change the penalty from a misdemeanor to a felony. For heavens sake, a misdemeanor for stalking a child or young adult to rape or worse kill, quite unbelievable. The enforcement of sexual predators not to violate the original laws of a sexual predator registration (do not go X feet from children, etc) is also difficult to enforce. In fact most laws are only enforced in a reactionary manner. However, the more provisions we can place on sexual predators to prevent them from making more victims from our children the better.

Parents, the best advice I can give you as a former law enforcement officer, now social media strategist is to keep tabs on your kids social networking. Know who they are communicating with, what is on their status update threads (read over their status updates), and ask them where they are going, who with, where did you meet them if it is someone you have not heard them mention before. Social media is changing our world and social networks are filled with criminals who are going to take advantage of opportunities. Mike Vallez

http://www.michaelvallez.com

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Department of Defense social media policy change on social media Five-O

DoD Takes On Social Media | Gets All Branches Under One Policy

by Mike Vallez on March 5, 2010

The Department of Defense has implemented an encompassing “Responsible and Effective Use
of Internet-based Capabilities Policy” last week to get everyone under their large umbrella on the same “social networking” use page (http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Web-Services-Web-20-and-SOA/Pentagon-Loosens-Reins-Over-Use-of-Facebook-Twitter-Web-20-Apps-448094/). As one could imagine the DoD was going to have to do something sooner than later to get the different organizations under their jurisdiction under the same policy.

The trouble began last year when the US Army banned the use of several “social networking” sites for their organization. The US Marines followed up with a much harsher version as I wrote about in August of last year “Marines Ban Social Media, But Can They.” The Marines banned the use of all “social networking” sites from all US Marine network computers.

The DoD is the protector of the United States of America and the job involves at most times a high level of secrecy and security around operations, procedures, and intelligence. Naturally, the banning of “social media” by the various organizations in the DoD was as a precautionary measure to protect national security, i.e. the United States. But, apparently after some study and consideration the DoD feels comfortable enough to allow use of “social networking” sites by their massive employee base.

Could the DoD successfully, have banned social media? Perhaps, but policing this would be a very difficult process, one that might take up an inordinate amount of time and take away from the more important mission of protecting the this country. The policy allows for use of “social networking” sites, wiki’s, etc, but there is some wording that allows the DoD to put the “kabash” on” social networking” if necessary. The cause for revoking “social networking” access is mostly common sense based on abuse or “bandwidth” issues.

I applaud the DoD for stepping up and taking the “social media” bull by the horns. An organization this large, especially one that deals in national security may have just set the standard for “social networking” use for the rest of the government and private sector. It ought to be interesting to see how other agencies, corporations, and other government entities deal with the same issue, people using “social networking sites” at work. MFV

http://michaelvallez.com

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ToysRUs Great Customer Service | Social Media Squander

by Mike Vallez on January 29, 2010

During the Christmas shopping season my wife and I had a tremendous customer service experience at ToysRUs in Wesley Chapel, Florida. No offense ToysRUs staff reading this, but we ended up at this stores electronics department after coming up short at Best Buy. We had intended on going to ToysRUs to grab some board games, but never really thought of purchasing any electronics at this store.

After grabbing the board games we needed we headed over to the checkout line, until my wife mentioned something about checking out there electronics. I almost brushed this off, but anytime I can check out electronics anywhere I am game. The breadth of electronics selection obviously is not up to par with Best Buy or hhgregg. But the electronics they do sell are reasonably priced. They had a small selection of digital cameras, a nicer selection of iPod compatible radios (better than Best Buy), and a respectable selection of iPod’s. As we wandered around the counters we almost left, but Trevor a customer service fellow asked if we needed help. That little outward offer by this guy to a couple that had no intention on spending any cash on electronics at ToysRUs was the beginning of a great shopping experience.

Trevor was very knowledgeable of the cameras and he helped us get a 12.1 mega pixel camera for our daughter at a magnificent price, less than $100.00. We were unable to match this at Best Buy (sorry, not trying to pick on Best Buy, just saying). Trevor continued to ask if we needed anything else and we were in the market for an iPod Touch. Really, I had no hope of purchasing an iPod Touch at ToysRUs due to the Apple price controls. But, low and behold ToysRUs offered us a discount, not on the iPod Touch, but off the total price of our purchase and the discount was a ToysRUs gift card. That cemented the deal. Another customer service woman (forgot her name, sorry) helped us find a wonderful iPod Touch radio that also was on sale and she was personally knowledgeable of. My wife and I walked out of ToysRUs spending almost $400 with an iPod Touch, a nice digital camera, and an iPod Touch alarm clock radio, with a $25 gift card as well.

My first thought as a social media nut is to tell the world. As you can see I am a little late at that, but non the less I am telling the story. I did however, reach out to ToysRUs through corporate through an email, but got no response. I then scoured their website for any signs of social media (Facebook, Twitter, you know), but found nothing. A check of Alexa.com for ToysRUs shows their website to be the 310th most popular website in the United States, yet no signs of social media efforts. But hold on, ToysRUs does have a robust Facebook Fan Page with almost half a million fans. Weird that the ToysRUs company website does not have the Facebook icon or any mention of Facebook on their website or in any of the commercials I have seen for this toy store giant.

ToysRUs appears to be a company that gets it! When I mean gets it, they have customer service representatives that go out of their way to help customers, which in this day and age is hard to find. But, the squandered opportunity comes from not advertising their social media involvement, i.e. their Facebook Fan Page. Maybe they would have 1.5 million fans instead and increased revenue. A check of Alexa.com a website rating company showed the ToysRUs website to be the 310th most popular website in the United States, which means this is an extremely busy website, again no signs of social media. By not advertising their social media involvement they are probably missing out on thousands if not hundreds of thousands of customer loyalty followers.

My suggestion for ToysRUs is to clearly identify they are on Facebook and consider providing customer service on Twitter. They have a large customer base in stay at home mothers, work mothers, and stay at home fathers who probably spend hours a day on the web. By meeting their customers on Facebook and Twitter they have a huge opportunity to increase their brand and customer loyalty. I am a fan of ToysRUs and will continue to look for electronics at this store before heading to Best Buy, at least at times. CM

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