Law Enforcement 2.0 - The Potential And The (Legal) Restrictions Of Facebook Data For Police Tracing And Investigation

Innovative information technologies permit new approaches to fight crime. This study examines the police’s state-of-the-art application of Facebook information and identifies two fields of usage: First, the police use Facebook to ask users for help, e.g. looking for witnesses of a crime. Second, the police search the social network for information, pictures or social bonds of a specific person. As academic literature is amazingly quiet on this timely topic, this study compiles recent media reports and results from a German pilot project conducted by Hanover police. Although several success cases show the potential of this new approach, new areas of conflict, e.g. how to protect the privacy of prospective offenders or witnesses, are created in this way. Our analysis reveals that the regulatory framework for the police work on Facebook is unclear. Thus we provide policy makers with a list of legal issues that remain to be clarified. Additionally, we compile hypotheses that provide avenues for future research.