A recent article by Gareth Wilson titled Facebook not police’s friend refers.
Within the context of law enforcement and the strict rules governing advertising and the making of money out of criminal or government activities the ban on the use of Facebook forbidding officers; “to upload any photos or discuss any issues regarding your official duties on Facebook” is a good thing.
Remember that by uploading images and content to Facebook or any other site that is not OWNED by the SAPS, they lose control over those images and content. The very second that those images are uploaded they are shared, copied and downloaded to private computers. The latest juicy crime is shared and e-mailed to address books all over the world. Those very same images and content is then used to support advertising that only benefits Facebook – no revenue share with the creators of the content.
By losing control of their images and content they lose control of their ability to rectify any mistakes that may be made in the uploading of images and content.
If the SAPS had to do such a thing as “… publicise the good work that is being done,” or “…. place pictures of missing persons online, as well as hot-spot crime areas and trends” then the SAPS should be doing so on their own web site. At least there you can put mechanisms in place that will prevent people from copying text and images and, for those that do manage you can trace where the text and images have been re-published.
Within a crime fighting context I have less concerns about the internet being a free for all (expect howl of protest here!).
It is true that police departments across the world are embracing the internet as a tool to help fight crime, BUT, it is disingenuous to follow that statement with this one; “Port Elizabeth police are banned from using Facebook at work and have been threatened with disciplinary action if they discuss work issues on the social networking site.” Of course Police use Facebook as a tool to fight crime (in the same way that they use telephones, newspapers and other communications media). The crucial point here is that they use Facebook as an investigative medium are not expected to access to Facebook in order to upload images of the latest bosberaad or suspect being moered.
Port Elizabeth flying squad commander Lieutenant-Colonel Chris Marais issued a written order last week forbidding officers “to upload any photos or discuss any issues regarding your official duties on Facebook”.
Just because thousands of police officers use Facebook does not automatically make it right. Just because millions of people smoke, drink, swear and speed does not make it right either.
Just because some Port Elizabeth officers say that; “sensitive information regarding investigations” has never been placed on Facebook does not mean that they are 100% correct.
How does the statement by Unisa criminal justice lecturer Rudolph Zinn that if the police did not embrace Facebook they would be “extremely short-sighted” justify the free and unfettered access by the SAPS to a site such as Facebook? What about the privacy concerns by many constitutional lawyers and academics?
Pure common sense dictates that any business or instance such as the SAPS has a sound policy around the use of any medium such as Facebook, Twitter and the information published on a public profile or web site.
I, for one, don’t want to be a victim of crime or even a suspect and have my image splashed all over the Internet intentionally or by ‘mistake’.
The South African SAPS Facebook site can be found here: SA SAPS on Facebook. At the time of writing 1 211 people have liked the page. In contrast the Facebook page for the Singapore Police has had nearly 60 000 likes.
Of the five links listed one has nothing to do with the SAPS and links to a housing development, one links to a hoax slayer type web site and the other three have closer connections to criminal type behaviour.
Both images posted by ‘others’ are derogatory.
On the Crime Report tab one is exhorted to “Report corrupt officials here: Report a crime here:” For the life of me I cannot see a specific form or method to do so. The rest of the page is blank.
The most recent comment by an official from the SAPS was on 13 December 2010 at 11:02 am.
The comments by ‘others’ are more up to date with the last one being posted just minutes ago. ALTHOUGH the writing, grammar and spelling by ‘others’ is absolutely atrocious. Word to the wise – When entering a police station, offer to write your own statements!
Not one of the valid questions (there are one or two) posed by ‘others’ on the SAPS wall have been answered.
Naah SAPS – rather have a static FB Page, do not allow others to post or ask questions and only direct people to your official web site.
Alan Straton
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I’m 100% in agreement with you on this one.
Forgot to say that I would be much happier knowing that the SAPS were not ‘wasting time’ on Vleisbook and rather out on the streets creating a visible presence.
After all they are being paid to PREVENT crime and not be amateur Facebook media moguls – don’t they have a media department for that?