Answer each of the following questions in your initial response:

1. What value does Open Source information have for law enforcement intelligence?

2. Provide two examples of Open Sources that can be beneficial to law enforcement and explain what those benefits are.

3. What concerns must be factored in if utilizing Open Source information?

4. Can police lawfully use insincere or fraudulent means to access social media information? (LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest…)

APA 6th edition format in your response. Additionally, you need to include at least one (1) referenced source. All forum responses need to be 500 words and include two (2) substantive feedback posts to your peers of 250 words.

Student Responses:

Student# 1 Steven

Merry Christmas class,

In this week’s forum we are to answer and discuss the following questions:

1. What value does Open Source information have for law enforcement intelligence? Open source intelligence (OSINT) is said to be an old way for intelligence gathering, but it seems as if it makes more sense to use in today’s law enforcement. With many criminals giving away there every move to friends and family on social media outlets, it makes it easier for police and data analysts to track suspects. Friedman, R. pointed in a 1998 essay that then 80 or 90 percent of data collected is from an open source (Friedman, 1998, p. 160). Some of the formats that make up open source intelligence includes data taken from different forms of media available to the public that includes books, periodicals, advertisements, radio, television, and a host of current technology. If you are a member of social media platforms such as Facebook and Instagram, you will know the value in open source intelligence in the recent case of the former bank employee who used social media to flaunt money he had stolen from the vault of a bank that he was employed at.

2. Provide two examples of Open Sources that can be beneficial to law enforcement and explain what those benefits are. As included in question one, new open source intelligence is having it biggest success in today’s technology era. One open source that is the most beneficial to law enforcement today is social media and news broadcasts. I chose these two because social media has been victorious for law enforcement because criminals do not comprehend yet that social media is a publicly traded company that the (state, local, and federal) law enforcement uses to gather information about people. These criminals proceed to announce their criminal behavior with hopes of not being detected and for clout (street credibility). The next public media outlet that seems to work for law enforcement is news broadcasts. Sometimes a concerned citizen or even a family member of a suspect may see a news broadcast and give necessary information to police to apprehend any suspects.

3. What concerns must be factored in if utilizing Open Source information? One of the main concerns law enforcement must take into consideration when using means of open sources to retrieve information on potential suspects, is that there are still laws governed by the US Constitution that prevents the illegal use of means to collect data. Seo, O (2014) writes that “Although laws exist to safeguard citizens from intrusive surveillance… federal privacy statutes has made it the subject of criticism” (Seo, 2014). Believe what this basically entails to is that those suspected of a crime and may be a member of one of the social media outlets with private page access, police cannot create fake profiles to intrude in their privacy.

4. Can police lawfully use insincere or fraudulent means to access social media information? (LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest…) Just like stated in question 3, police, by law, cannot use fraudulent means as a way to obtain social media access to a potential suspects. Congress is said to not be able to keep up with the rapid growth of new technology to create policies for collecting information. Not only does law enforcement use social media to fraudulently gain access to a potential suspect social media profiles, but they also have been known to regularly use lawless means to spy on innocent people as well.

References

Friedman, R. S. (1998). Open source intelligence. Parameters, 28(2), 159-165. Retrieved from https://search-proquest-com.ezproxy1.apus.edu/docv…

Seo, O. S. (2014). Government Monitoring of Social Media Networks and the Reach of the Fourth Amendment. Criminal Justice, 28(4), 36-40,62. Retrieved from https://search-proquest-com.ezproxy1.apus.edu/docv…