It is
fall, so it must be conference season. From September through October, members
of the PRISM team will be in various locations across the country. Last week,
three members of the PRISM team were in Omaha for the SMILE Conference. As we have a great
relationship with law enforcement agencies, we thought it was pertinent to
share some of the major takeaways from #smilecon.
Law Enforcement Agencies are Successfully
Using Social Media
For
those of you who are not familiar with SMILE, it is a conference at which law
enforcement agencies network with one another and share best practices
regarding the use of social media in law enforcement, from both a marketing and
investigative perspective. It allows these agencies to learn new, innovative
ways to harness the power of social media to build relationships with the
community and combat crime. Throughout the conference, many speakers discussed
how their agencies are successfully using social media to keep tabs on known
offenders, curtail gang activity, monitor events, respond to disasters, and
conduct undercover investigations. Officer Eric Draeger
of the Milwaukee Police Department spoke about his department’s success doing a
multitude of those things at once: They successfully use social media to
disrupt gang activity and prevent incidents from occurring at large public
gatherings.
Data Fusion is Imperative
As we
wrote about from our experience at the i2 User Conference, agencies are
integrating a variety of data sources into their process. With the proliferation
of social media activity, law enforcement agencies now understand the
fundamental need to incorporate social media data into their day-to-day
operations. Social media records are now combined with traditional
investigative data to conduct more thorough investigations. At SMILE, many
agencies reported impressive results using social media information in their
investigative processes.
Tools are a Must
In
order to conduct social media monitoring and investigations, law enforcement
agencies need tools. Nearly every presenter at SMILE was using some form of
tool to assist them with the investigative process. The amount of readily
available social media data is unfathomable and can be extremely overwhelming.
Investigators and analysts must rely on tools to assist them with harvesting,
processing, and analyzing social media data. Otherwise, they would be inundated
with records and have difficulty making timely analyses.
Conclusion
Every
time we go to a conference, we learn something new that allows us to improve
our products and services for our clients. SMILE was no exception. We have been
following trends of the use of social media, embracement of data fusion, and
need for social media tools in law enforcement for some time now. It is one of
the main reasons we developed PRISM. Both the i2 User Conference and SMILE
reinforced our use of social media, data fusion, and PRISM in our investigative
process.
