NYPD Sets Up Special Team for Social Media Tracking

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Social media extends beyond simple photo-sharing, status updates and getting to know friends online. Wary of potential criminal activities going on in these networks, the NYPD is creating a unit that specifically tracks social media activity.

“Catch me if you can. I’m in Brooklyn,” says the Facebook status of a troublemaker wanted for contempt and harassment. Police eventually caught up with the guy and made an arrest. This is not a unique scenario. Police note that miscreants often like to brag, and they sometimes tell about their exploits online. Also, social media and messaging services can be used to coordinate potentially criminal activity like gang wars. Recall that messaging services were considered to have aided London rioters in grouping and looting en masse.

And so the NYPD is creating a unit that will monitor activity on Facebook, Twitter and other networks. It’s not that these services are bad, per se, but the police are confident they can discover fishy goings-on, and make follow-ups as necessary.

Newly appointed Assistant Commissioner Kevin O’Connor heads the department’s juvenile justice unit and his team will be looking into posts about troublesome parties, gang showdowns, and the like. It’s not clear whether Facebook and Twitter will be giving the cops special privileges (like peeking into private statuses), but it’s likely that the police will make do with whatever publicly-accessible information is available. But will they also make use of more advanced features, like face-recognition? Miscreants beware.