1.01 Policing practice, citizen enquiry and solving crime with social media

One largely unexplored aspect of social networking is its role in citizen investigation of crime. A victim or witness may appear at a police station with the name, photograph and location of a suspect, which they have discovered using social networking sites. For example, even without the actual content of any messages posted, Facebook contains a number of features that are very useful to a potential citizen detective.

This project aimed to discover and map the types of citizen-led enquiry that online social networking is being utilised for, what impact this is having on police investigation, what changes to guidelines may be needed and how these may be integrated into the practices of policing.

Early work lead to the project being developed as Centre project 1.06 Improving investigations through utilising technology, community and psychology.

Outputs