Policy Development

LAW ENFORCEMENT ON SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORM (Policy Development)

Vibert Jacob

Cjus 520

Liberty University

Social media is defined as the collection of websites and applications that enable both the creators and the users to share content or information or to participate. These include the Facebook, twitter, my space, and even Instagram. The law enforcement are facing many problems related to social media handling by employees in ways such that in other times it is hard to regulate the personal life of every employee since they are termed as infringing the personal freedom of the officers. Therefore, the law enforcement management has to come up with relative measures to curb the effects that arise out of the poor handling of social media content. Some of the negative effects of social media practices to the police include; interference on the investigations, revelation of police secrets, exposure of suspects, distractions of police orders, exposure of weaknesses leading to criminal plans of attacks .

Exposure of governments arms, a bad public image on the work-related issues, shameful actions of police leading to disrespect by the public, non-performance of the scheduled duty and even disrespect to the profession. The use of social media by the police is however important and at other times brings a lot of problems to both the police and the police departments. Therefore, the positive effects are not the problem and hence coming up with a good strategy to regulate the negative effects enhances the well-being and the performance of the police sector activities and hence serving the public well. Some of the positive effects of social media to the police include, (“Police perceptions of computer crimes in two southeastern cities: an examination from the viewpoint of patrol officers,” 2013) fast communication and engagement with public on matters security, education of the public of security issues.

Positive interactions with the public in the conducts and relations with the police and insecurity issues helps in criminal investigations and tracking activities, crime prevention and even publishing of facts and quotes to the public sites. As a policy manager of law enforcement organization, therefore, I would come up with the best practices to regulate police officers use of social media such as; Restriction of personal social media activities by the police while on duty. Every police officer that is assigned a duty at various times should strictly obey and observe the rule that he/she should not be found accessing the personal accounts of either Facebook or Twitter. This is of much importance since the police department being very important department in provision of security to the public, (“Police Chief Perspectives: Social Media,” 2010) there is no way that one can offer security and at same time get involved in debates that make one so attracted to them and hence forgetting the security duty. At such times, criminals may view the police who is active in other matters and hence can manage to attack.

The police therefore can be allowed to access the main police ways of communication and sites so as to allow the right channel of communications with the rest of the officers and therefore prevent communication breakdowns. The sites also allow proper steps of critical information acquired during the training and hence work is performed easily by the officers. The police should have shifted so as to allow them fell appreciated and hence fulfill their social life pleasures and associations with the public through interactions on social media while in the camp but in the off-duty tasks.

Once a police officer is assigned a duty to carry out therefore he/she should consider first undertaking the task to the very best according to training and even during the recruitment they must be given strict rules and regulations to guide them in their profession to avoid incidences such as job quits and even un performance of responsibilities as guided. The working hours should be observed strictly and hence once a police officer are assigned a duty he/she should not assign it to others but personally undertake it so as to make sure that one is responsible for any failures of duty as assigned.

Every police should not be left idle since an idle mind is a devil’s workshop. The same police can turn to be the dangerous person too to the public and therefore if one is not on duty he/she should return the government’s arms to the respective administration to take care of them and protection of the public. Public or non-public information regarding police reports, criminal history, arrests or calls for police. It is a very important practice to make sure that all the information regarding the police is addressed by the personnel’s appointed by the administration. Therefore, the police are not supposed to address anything concerning the profession work unless ordered to do so by the management. The reports may include ones given to the media houses.

In case a police officer give information to the journalists without a full evidence of same information does not do a common good to the public and hence it may bring a lot of unrest to the citizens in case it is critical. One should not also give out criminal history of a certain suspect on the social media since this may stir up the minds of people and hence decide to take actions on their hands. Such records should be secluded and hence used by the lawyers in the criminal courts for prosecutions and investigations. Those histories affect the investigation processes by police since such criminals may view how the police are planning to take actions and hence deciding to go to hide places.

Regulating the use, postings of photos or videos, (“4 ways social media can help police departments,” 2013 ) police facilities, equipment, uniforms, or weapons on the social media platforms. All tools and arms of the police should not be posted on the social media since they make the public be anxious in knowing and accessing them. They make the public to involve one in discussions which in one way a police officer may not be able to avoid or neglect in answering to close relatives. This information, therefore, turns into an attack to the conduct of such police and affects the security of citizens since the lawbreakers will snooze and have access to such equipment. Free postings on social media may reveal the weak equipment that the police officer is carrying and therefore criminals may attack with superior weapons than theirs. They make the public become and structure tactical questions that make one reveal the information.

Police officers also should not post their photos wearing the police uniforms since the general public has the image of every person in the village and hence if such image of a police with negative image in the village it may cause disrespect to the whole police unit and therefore avoid all these the police should use their passports as profile images in the social media and avoid unnecessary equipment postings. Profanity or unprofessional language and harmful images. The police should not at any time be involved in talks that are harmful to the public image of their profession. They should, therefore, make sure that every form of communication protects good public image to themselves and the police department at large. Language that involves assault and utterances that may cause the nuisance to the public should be avoided at a high expense so as to protect the trust of the police in addressing and solving of citizens problems by the police with a lot of trusts.

The police should be trained in handling and communicate to different people and hence should use this knowledge in handling any information relating to communication. It is said that word of mouth can burn mountains and therefore if the word of mouth is not well managed it ends up causing lots of problems to the public at large. Derogatory comments or images about superiors or co-workers. Any information regarding the police officers should be protected in that in case any police officers make an offense it should not be brought to the public but instead be reported to the respective institutions and hence he/she is able to carry out his burden as a personal being and not as a police officer. The police transfers also should not be made known and therefore any police officer can be posted anywhere in the country since they are to serve the interests of the whole and any citizen in common without any neglecting.

In case the public identifies and notices the information regarding the negative influence of certain superior officer by other co-workers it means they also will have to become curious about him/her making it hard for the administration. Some images also may cause other to hate others due to hate of exposure. Work-related matters should not expose to the social Media also. These may include matters concerning work such as revealing how orders come from the bosses or event integral government secrets since the police protect the government and its citizens. The police, therefore, should be very attentive on preventing any leak of critical information to the public that is not allowed to by the police regulations. To curb all these problems, therefore, the police officers and both the management communication should be done through the police site so as to allow editing and advice to whoever does the postings before.

The police department should employ the information personnel’s to do the analysis of the information before being made out to (Soros, 2018) the public and the management according to the regulations. There is a need for policy in the police department therefore and legal issues such as public records, first amendment rights and related policies such as personal mobile devices are considered when developing a policy.

The police officers should first serve the interest of public then get to their personal interests such as social media when off duty.

References

4 ways social media can help police departments. (2013, May 28). Retrieved from https://www.policeone.com/social-media-for-cops/articles/6250205-4-ways-social-media-can-help-police-departments/

Police Chief Perspectives: Social Media. (n.d.). doi:10.4135/9781506372709

Police perceptions of computer crimes in two southeastern cities: an examination from the viewpoint of patrol officers. (2013). Policing: An International Journal of Police Strategies & Management, 36(1). doi:10.1108/pijpsm.2013.18136aaa.004

Soros, G. (2018, February 15). The Social Media Threat to Society and Security by George Soros. Retrieved from https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/social-media-security-threat-by-george-soros-2018-02

You have a lot of work to do on this paper.

You spent too much time on the pros and cons of Social Media and not enough analysis on the complex legal & liability issues or the development of a policy that represents the “best practices” used by other departments

you need to include an analysis of the complex legal (Constitutional) & liability issues attached to regulating an employee’s personal use of social media sites off-duty without violating their First Amendment Constitutional rights

there are several cases and case law that deals with this that you need to include as a basis for establishing what speech falls under First Amendment protection and what speech does not

the final document needs to be a lot tighter, with more specifics, as to (1) the protections that will be afforded to both the department and the employee, (2) criteria for determining WHEN an infraction or breach has occurred, and (3) the range of punishment options and the guidance for the supervisors as to applying the appropriate level of discipline, considering the law, ethics, economics, and overall effect on mission capabilities, and (4) what speech falls under First Amendment protection and what speech does not

Additionally, I did not see where you incorporated any interviews with local law enforcement leaders (as directed).

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