兰德-在执法中运用社交媒体和社会网络分析（英文）-2018.7-28页

PRIORITY Criminal Justice NEEDS INITIATIVE Summary

Core Content

This report, produced by the RAND Corporation, the Police Executive Research Forum, RTI International, and the University of Denver, outlines the findings of an expert panel convened by the National Institute of Justice in April 2017. The panel focused on the use of social media analysis and social network analysis in law enforcement, identifying key applications, challenges, and innovation needs.

Main Business Cases

The panel identified five core business cases for using social media and social network analysis in law enforcement:

1. Monitoring for worrisome activity

   • Use social media to detect short-term safety threats and provide alerts to law enforcement.
   • This includes monitoring during events for signs of crime or emergencies.

2. Identifying those at high risk for involvement in violence

   • Use social network analysis to detect individuals who are central in networks of criminal activity, potentially indicating a high risk of involvement in violence.

3. Actively monitoring high-risk situations

   • Use social media and social network analysis to monitor individuals at high risk of violence and assess whether an imminent threat exists.

4. Investigating organized crime networks

   • Use both social media and social network analysis to identify and dismantle organized crime structures.

5. Investigating specific crimes

   • Use these technologies to gather evidence, identify suspects, and track criminal activities.

Core Case Not to Do

The panel emphasized that monitoring First Amendment-protected activity for vague or unspecified purposes is not an appropriate use of these technologies. This is due to the potential for privacy violations, governmental overreach, and suppression of lawful speech.

Key Findings

• Social media analysis and social network analysis are valuable tools for law enforcement, particularly in detecting threats, investigating crimes, and analyzing criminal networks.
• A framework for security, privacy, and civil rights protections was proposed to guide the ethical and legal use of these technologies.
• The panel identified four innovation themes:
  1. Supporting community engagement in developing policies and strategies for using these technologies.
  2. Technical development of tools to better suit law enforcement needs.
  3. Training for law enforcement in the use of social media and social network analysis.
  4. Creation of a help desk to assist law enforcement in navigating requests to social media companies and interpreting data.

Social Network Analysis Overview

• Social network analysis (SNA) is a method for examining social relationships and structures using networks or graphs.
• Each person is a node, and relationships are edges or links.
• Key metrics in SNA include:
  • Degree centrality: the number of direct links a node has.
  • Betweenness centrality: the role of a node in connecting different subgroups.
  • Influencers and leaders often have high numbers of both direct and indirect relationships.
• SNA can also be used to identify subgroups or communities within larger networks, such as criminal gangs.

Examples of Use in Law Enforcement

• Gang-related shooting investigations: Matching gang network data with vehicle information to identify potential adversaries.
• Monitoring gang activity on YouTube: Detecting explicit threats and criminal behavior in posts and videos.
• Prioritizing enforcement: Using SNA to identify central individuals in criminal networks for targeted interventions.

Current Usage and Challenges

• According to a 2014 survey, 86% of law enforcement professionals used social media for investigations 2–3 times per month.
• However, only 48% had formal processes for social media investigations, and 9% received training.
• Social network analysis tools like Coplink Analyst's Notebook and Palantir Technologies are widely used, but advanced algorithms based on academic research are less common in law enforcement.

Innovation Prioritization

• The panel used a clustering algorithm to prioritize needs into three tiers based on median expected value scores:
  • Tier 1: Highest priority and potential impact.
  • Tier 2: Medium priority but high importance or comparable to Tier 1.
  • Tier 3: Lowest priority.
• Priority needs included:
  • Developing community engagement strategies.
  • Enhancing technical tools for law enforcement.
  • Creating training programs.
  • Establishing a help desk for data interpretation and access.

Methodology

• The panel included practitioners, researchers, and legal experts.
• A questionnaire was used to gather input on operational questions, inadvisable uses, and needed protections.
• The business cases were developed through discussions and were categorized as either relevant to social media analysis, social network analysis, or both.

Conclusion

The report highlights the growing importance of social media and social network analysis in modern law enforcement. It provides a research agenda to address innovation needs, ethical concerns, and operational challenges. The ultimate goal is to ensure responsible use of these technologies while protecting privacy, civil rights, and information security.