Want to read Slashdot from your mobile device? Point it at m.slashdot.org and keep reading!

 


Forgot your password?
Close
typodupeerror
×
Facebook Crime Security Social Networks Your Rights Online

UK Police To Get Facebook Lessons 63

Posted by samzenpus from the learn-to-farmville-better dept.
jhernik writes "The police are to receive training on how to use Facebook and Twitter to catch people committing serious crimes. The National Policing Improvement Agency (NPIA) will overhaul its training modules to include sessions on the social networking sites for detectives. 'This programme is a vital part of the career pathway for detectives and the new training covers sensitive areas of policing where limited guidance existed previously,' said deputy chief constable Nick Gargan, acting head of the NPIA, in a statement to the Press Association. 'These improvements are exactly what detectives need to tackle the challenges and complexities of modern policing effectively,' he added. 'The changes underline the importance to having a national agency to provide guidance and train detectives to a single high standard so they can work on investigations in any part of the country and give their colleagues and the public the best quality service in fighting crime.'"
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.

UK Police To Get Facebook Lessons More

UK Police To Get Facebook Lessons

Comments Filter:

    • This new development should have some effect on the reduction of free-roaming individuals mentioned in your sig.

      On the other hand, according to mine, actual effects will be purely cosmetic.

      • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

        by GrumblyStuff ( 870046 )

        Funny but it seems that a good portion of those stupid people are either writing laws or enforcing them.

        • Did you just question authority figures? Everyone (except for terrorists and juvenile delinquents, of course) knows that authority figures are always right and should never be questioned!

        • IMHO, those writing "stupid" laws rarely posses the necessary level of stupidity required for creating SUCH levels of fuckup.
          Laws like that are more often the result of naivete and incompetence/ignorance than stupidity or malice.
          And it would be rather difficult for a person with such qualities to single-handedly come into position where he/she would be able to create laws.

          ALSO, laws tend not to be written or passed by a single person.
          So, the "stupidity" doesn't have to be the product of one person or even a

          • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

            by GrumblyStuff ( 870046 )

            Ok, ok. Let me amend my statement.

            Funny but it seems that a good portion of those stupid people are either in charge of creating laws or enforcing them.

            Ok, yeah, that still doesn't quite get it.

            Laws like that are more often the result of naivete and incompetence/ignorance than stupidity or malice.

            I don't think it's naivete or incompetence but definitely ignorance, greed, or maliciousness.

            Consider this: It's naive to think DRM won't negatively affect legitimate purchasers and will stop piracy but it's incom

            • Consider this: It's naive to think DRM won't negatively affect legitimate purchasers and will stop piracy but it's incompetent to outlaw breaking DRM and malicious to shut down internet connections based on mere accusations of piracy.

              Please.
              If anyone, RIAA and its cohorts have shown us how truly malicious they can actually be - when they REALLY get into it.
              Every single one of their acts reeks with incompetence first and foremost.
              Sure, their final motives can be perceived as malicious when you take any point of view other than "making money for people who employ them" but they are so bad at even sticking to that.

              There should be room for discretion and leniency as well as shame and punishment.
              You might say that that's already a problem as people on the bottom of the financial totem pole get hammered by the law while people on top have their lawyers apologize and they go about their merry ways and I would agree with you.

              Oh, the problem's been brewing for a long time now and it is only now that stories about rich people "getting away with it" spr

  • Discretion (Score:3, Interesting)

    by WarJolt ( 990309 ) on Sunday October 31, 2010 @03:35PM (#34081714)

    Perhaps people will stop posting incriminating evidence, but something tells me those photos of people plastered aren't going away.

  • That this method can't be foiled by simply changing the privacy settings or... say... not posting this sort of evidence in there.

    Hey, maybe this'll encourage people to actually take privacy seriously. I'm pretty sure this'll never happen.

    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      by mysidia ( 191772 )

      That this method can't be foiled by simply changing the privacy settings or... say... not posting this sort of evidence in there.

      They should still catch people who take those precautions, it will just require more time and resources.

      But part of the job of police is to catch perps as quickly as possible, and that includes investigating the fruitful types of avenues that are easiest to investigate first. Most criminals are stupid and if joined to a social network will reveal some HINT authorities could u

  • Right... (Score:3, Insightful)

    by mrsteveman1 ( 1010381 ) on Sunday October 31, 2010 @03:37PM (#34081746)

    "serious crimes" like uploading a picture of your friend smoking weed, or your "5 days shy of 18" girlfriend in her underwear.

    • Some dumb people have called radio shows and say they robed a bank. So you can want to be able to use that in court and not have the case drooped as the cop did not do things right in getting the evidence.

      • Re: (Score:2, Funny)

        by Anonymous Coward

        Some dumb people have called radio shows and say they robed a bank.

        I'd like to see that - it'd have to be a pretty big robe. Was there a wizard hat too?

        So you can want to be able to use that in court and not have the case drooped as the cop did not do things right in getting the evidence.

        Yeah, it's always embarrasing when your case starts to droop.

    • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

      by jo_ham ( 604554 )

      Weed really isn't a huge deal in the UK, where this story is from. If a cop catches you with some, they will "arrest and then de-arrest" you at the side of the road/in the pub/wherever you are and give you a street caution for it, then just confiscate the stuff. If you clearly have enough to be a dealer, they will arrest you properly. Having enough for personal use on you is just not all that serious at all - the cops just don't have the time to be dealing with that petty crap.

      • From some of the articles I've read the cops in the UK don't seem to have the time to much of anything because all crimes seem to be fairly petty including armed robbery and mugging, etc. Although, they do seem to have time to arrest those defending themselves from such as serious criminals. The UK view of "Crime and Punishment" is as ridiculous as anywhere else; just for different reasons.

        • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

          by jo_ham ( 604554 )

          Was that in the British press?

          That well known source of objective coverage of UK events.

          It's really not as bad as the Daily Fail and others like to make out.

  • @Criminal ur nicked

  • People are stupid and the law uses that against them. News at 11.
     

  • A picture doesn't prove anything... (Score:4, Insightful)

    by moxley ( 895517 ) on Sunday October 31, 2010 @03:56PM (#34081936)

    Unless it's clearly child porn -

    But it's total bullshit if any cops anywhere think they can arrest people for looking drunk, or being seen in a photo with a bottle of booze even if they're underage - or a photo of someone smoking something out of a bong or pipe - there is no way they could prove what the substance was, and while I am not sure about the UK, in the US our legal system hasn't eroded to that point yet, I am sure it probably will as we continue our descent into fascism and away from the rule of law.

    it's bad enough that people think that the system works how it oes on TV and it's a hell of a rude awakening when you find out just how ridiculously fucked up it really is as it stands now.

    • Re:A picture doesn't prove anything... (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Shimbo ( 100005 ) on Sunday October 31, 2010 @04:45PM (#34082360)

      There's more to being a detective than finding evidence that would be admissible in court. Social networking is likely a good place to find useful leads, or might be solid enough to obtain a search warrant.

    • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

      by sunderland56 ( 621843 )
      Try googling for "suspended for picture on facebook". You'll be surprised.

      • Not to mention that someone can always frame you with some clever hacking.

        If someone can plant kiddie porn on your PC, imagine how easy it will be to plant it on your FB account.

    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward

      But it's total bullshit if any cops anywhere think they can arrest people for looking drunk, or being seen in a photo with a bottle of booze even if they're underage - or a photo of someone smoking something out of a bong or pipe - there is no way they could prove what the substance was, and while I am not sure about the UK, in the US our legal system hasn't eroded to that point yet, I am sure it probably will as we continue our descent into fascism and away from the rule of law.

      Wow. All this is a story about how cops are going to be taught about what Facebook is and how it works (and in another country, no less!) - and that's enough to make you wax paranoid about "our descent into fascism"? Dude, you really need to take a chill pill, and perhaps see a doctor.

    • Re: (Score:2, Interesting)

      by Anonymous Coward

      I think people are getting the wrong end of the stick. This isn't to catch people for petty offences, it'll be used to do things like check alibis, see who people are in contact with "I don't know the bloke!" "But you're a friend on Facebook, sir", etc.

      People have been arrested here in the UK for showing guns in their Facebook profiles, stupid things like that. There's even the guy who famously escaped from prison (or while on bail or somesuch) and brazenly posted on Facebook for a good week or two.

      Social

  • ...but I heard this on the RADIO two days ago. But anyway, if you're stupid enough to rob a bank or whatever and then update your facebook or twitter status "i just robbed a bank lol" then you deserve whats coming. I only bother with facebook about once every two weeks, and I find twitter to be absolutely useless.

  • Uh oh. (Score:5, Funny)

    by Interoperable ( 1651953 ) on Sunday October 31, 2010 @04:25PM (#34082186)

    I hope they don't find the bodies that I buried on my Farmville.

    • I hope they don't find the bodies that I buried on my Farmville.

      "Yes, your honor, we not only have a confession from Mr. Interoperable about his multiple murders, but we have conclusive proof of his Wars with the Mafia."

  • Hmmm... (Score:3, Funny)

    by hahn ( 101816 ) on Sunday October 31, 2010 @04:56PM (#34082442) Homepage
    When I read this summary, why does it read like a description of a South Park episode?

  • Dang, the cops are so lazy in the UK they don't even walk a beat

    or

    Damn, the cops are so cool in the UK because they like to surf.

    okay, sorry, i would be funnier, but i got arrested for a pic of me smoking weed on facebook and the cops came over and "confiscated" my stash.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by jo_ham ( 604554 )

      UK cops really don't care about personal use of weed. They'll take it off you if they find it on you during the course of a search for another offence (a weapons check, for example), but they aren't going to specifically go after you for it. Just not worth the time.

  • Wonder how that would work!

  • This summer I was working in Yellowstone National Park as a waiter. After my boss was sacked he left his car behind in the parking lot where it sat for weeks. Spotting an opportunity to improve my truck's antiquated radio player I asked former boss, on Facebook, if I could have his car's cd player. He said sure!. Actually he said, "Awesome, Go Mengele on the old girl!" Two weeks later I'm called into my employers office and met by two Park Police Officers, who say, "We know what you did, we read about it on
  • Someone please help me here, are people really so dumb? They're having to be taught how to use Facebook? Hell, an *un*trained monkey could use it! Oh, wait...these are probably people who proudly trumpet "I'm so not technical!" when faced with a modem that needs to be reset or "the internet is broken". How do these people drive cars or work ATM machines? How have they not died in household accidents? And these are *POLICE*!?

  • Just a funny thought, maybe they also need learn about Mafia Wars too. But seriously I think this is actually a good idea. Some crimes are even commited right inside Facebook like blackmailing.

    Like

    Added as friend

    =)

    We help Americans find jobs and prosperity in Asia. Visit http://www.pathtoasia.com/employment [pathtoasia.com] for details.

Slashdot Top Deals

He has not acquired a fortune; the fortune has acquired him. -- Bion

Close