Internet police on the e-beat
Tuesday 26th April 2011, 3:00PM BST.
Police are being trained to track down criminals on the internet
STATES police officers are being specially trained to scour the internet – including
social networking site Facebook – to bring criminals to justice.
DI Chris Beechey, the head of the force’s CID unit, revealed that the training had proved crucial in securing the conviction of offenders.
He made the comments following the case in the Magistrate’s Court last week of a 16-year-old girl who posted a video of herself on Facebook driving illegally.
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I have been concerned that this is the case for some time. I certainly heard reports of people complaining about a Police presence on island related forums (though in fairness our bobbies are as entitled to express their opinions privately as the rest of us!)
In this particular case the criminals were obliging enough to video themselves breaking the law. What worries me is how many private videos and photographs have been viewed in the course of Police investigations where the law has not been broken and has no place intruding?
Sadly, Facebook allows videos and photographs to be viewed by anyone by default, even if they are not on a user’s friend list. Perhaps we all need to show a little more discretion about what we put online and also be careful to tweak our privacy settings properly.
Certainly not a mistake this little girl will make again…
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What a waste of time and our money,juveniles have always been “showboating” and always will.
What serious criminal would leave themselves open to prosecution on the internet?
They will have us next for what we are thinking!.
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Big Brother is Watching……..
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And what does data protection have to say about this?
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It about time the Police started looking at some of the absolute rubbish posted by people on the Internet. But take a closer look at the blogs for criminal activity and slander never mind Facebook!
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If you’re stupid enough to post something online of/about yourself doing something illegal then you deserve to be prosecuted I’m afraid.
Successful prosecutions have occurred in other jurisdictions on a similar basis so it was only a matter of time before it happened here.
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How long before they start requesting data info off the ISP’s to investigate mere suspicion? You are free, to do what we tell you!
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Get ready you coming next hi hi
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No Data Protection issue. Peer to peer websites were rules “public” by UK courts – that’s why news progs now use “tributes” and celeb quotes straight from the web with impunity.
Poster beware – if it’s on the Internet, it’s public. End of.
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Ref: No.5.
The Police already do.
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Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?
“Who watches the watchmen?”,
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Chris, need I remind you that we all have a right enshrined by law to express our opinions? If we can’t rely on ordinary members of the public like you to uphold these freedoms, what hope is there that the Police will? I am extremely worried by this development.
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@Mona Lot –
Actually anyone can go onto any popular video uploading site and witness any number of crimes benig committed.
Go on ‘tube and type in something like ‘driving too fast’ and you will see people doing 100mph on public streets.
Also everyone knows you can go online and find seriously sickening and disturbing videos of people hurting and killing each other. this is nothing new.
I think the point here is that they are not paying coppers to use facebook all day long but if they get wind of a video or incriminating photos and comments being put on Facebook, they are now trained and allowed to find them, view them, and use them as evidence.
Spot on I say. I am honestly more and more impressed with the police every week these days which is more than I can say for some of our other States departments
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Will they use facebook forums to catch housing and benefit cheats in the same way??????
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Software Programme helps parents track children on Facebook —————-
INTERNET security firm Check Point overnight launched software that lets parents watch over offspring on Facebook without being “friends” at the online social network.
ZoneAlarm SocialGuard alerts parents to signs of trouble in a child’s Facebook account without them being privy to all posts, comments, pictures, videos or other digital content shared between friends at the website.
The program scans Facebook profiles, communications and “friend” requests and uses algorithms to identify potential bullying, sexual overtures, or talk of drugs, violence or suicide.
SocialGuard software runs unseen in the background, flagging suspicious activity and sending alerts to parents, according to its Redwood City, California-based creators.
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Most employers already “google” a potential applicant and see what information is available online.
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Sorry, couldn’t help but comment about some of the daft posts here.
So whats the alternative: Police get to hear about a 16 year old driving illegally and do nothing about it? Next week the girl does the same thing and kills someone. At least our DP rights have been protected. Get real!
And then the girl might sue the Police for watching stuff she posted on a public website.
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As some posters have stated. If you wish to be a private person then be private and don’t splash your life across the internet.
Facebook is a social website for people who wish to put their life’s on line.
Whats the saying”…if you have nothing to hide!”
My only concern is how much time and money is been spent on a PC going though the internet looking for offenders. Is it cost effective?
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This sounds like the biggest waste of time and money ever. The only way things like this pay off is if they crack an international child porn ring. Catching girls who are driving a whole 12 months before they ought to is hardly grounds for allowing the police to focus on this kind of thing.
You have to think they’re on the wind up sometimes.
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James, brilliant comment, there are too many benefit cheats, some off islands for months, enjoying the sunshine in way off places whilst claiming benefits..disgusting, get a job like the rest of us and stop cheating the system and letting us pay for your holidays etc..
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Could the police also use their powers to stop all the town beach being littered by rubbish every single day, especially at the weekend. It is a disgrace and nothing gets done, it’s sickening to see in the mornings all the rubbish piling up on the sands and the steps, broken bottles everywhere and even placed in the sand broken side up on purpose. These criminals should be caught and punished or are they above the law?
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It is nice to know that our Police is using their valuable time to watch 16 year old girls videos on facebook and other sites. What else did they come up with ?
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Last night a group of 12 teenagers mindlessly smashed up seats at Springfield Stadium. This will spoil it for other youngsters who usually use the stadium grounds to play football during the summer evenings. If the police are so busy checking facebook, they ought to check it right now, as the vile teenagers who have just been released from police custody are already on there, sharing the ‘amusing’ story of their night in the cells. Don’t their parents read their facebook???? It won’t be too difficult to check as they’ve all got their facebook account in their own name. What a delightful generation…. I despair
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Some thicko`s tell all their friends on Facebook that they are off on holiday, then they are burgaled.
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#22 Well if those 16-year old girls are already breaking the law it’s beneficial to the economy to catch them now and sort them out now!
All we need to do is work out how we actually sort them out since apparently all current methods (be it jail or offering holidays) seem to fail.
No point only bothering with adult criminals while breeding a greater amount of future adult criminals.
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Bit of a brainless press release- another investigative tactic blown.
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Ex-Job2 – It has been widely publicised in the National Press, ever since Facebook was introduced, that the police monitor entries.
Frankly I am amazed at the naivety of some of the comments above, especially those of Delta. If you’ve done nothing wrong, you should have nothing to worry about.
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#27 Retired Rozzer. Point taken mate. The job is difficult enough without advertising tactics with banner headlines. The CW trial is case in point.
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Jersey will be hit by a much higher crime rate over the next 5 years, this does not give long for all areas of the island from states to the public to fight back against this rise. So maybe the police should look at this instead of looking at facebook, if the police manage to catch any high profile criminals due to facebook then well done but I can tell you that will not happen and time, money and resources will be wasted.
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Let me reassure you Retired Rozzer that I am speaking from bitter personal experience.
I was accused of a crime involving Facebook two years ago and because of Police ineptitude my career was very nearly ruined. In one sense, had the Police taken the time to investigate their findings thoroughly I would have been vindicated however their insistence on making the kind of generalisations that you did by saying, “If you’ve nothing to hide you’ve nothing to worry about” hampered all efforts to establish the truth.
If one has nothing to hide they have nothing to prove. What someone shares with their friends on Facebook is just as private as a written letter as far as I am concerned and if the Police wish to monitor an individual, they should require a warrant, just as they would should they tap someone’s phone.
In this case the information was recklessly placed on the internet and the Police were forced to act due to the public manner in which the law was flouted. This, does not however give them the right to spy on ordinary citizens.
There is only one way to put a stop to this and that is to expose the methods used by the Police to monitor people online so that they can protect themselves. If no one else is prepared to do it, I will.
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I said in my previous post that I believed the answer to the problem of what I see as Police intrusion on Facebook is increased awareness of how to protect your privacy while using the site.
To this end I have created a Facebook page, ‘Say NO to Police Cyber Spies’ ( http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Say-NO-to-Police-Cyber-Spies/150801391652861 ). The page contains links to guides on how better to assure information you post online remains confidential.
I hope that anyone who is interested in preserving their privacy and/or continuing the discussion will join me on there as I feel this issue should be explored.
I would ask even those who Facebook users to disagree to review the information I have collated as it is still useful and I would like to encourage dialogue on this issue.
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Well all great and well smart folk, however if the mail server is not sitting in Jersey they can do what they like, I suggest you all get up to speed on internet protocol…
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Total waste of Taxpayers money…the kids will run rings round them……and use it as sport.
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@Vicki – I am a little confused by your comments – Facebook does not use a mail server; it’s a social networking site. Also, who are “they?” Thought I was the Conspiracy nut…!
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Jersey Police are just getting better and better.
If a girls is driving a car underage, therefore no licence, no insurance, and im guessing she didn’t own the car either. that’s 3 different driving offences. The police have done a good job catching her and bring her to justice.
I would never have dreamt of getting behind the wheel at 16, hell I was even worried about riding my bike on the pavement for fear of being caught by the police. You let people get away with petty crimes and it grow and grows until suddenly 16 year olds driving cars is being classed as “kids will be kids! leave them alone” what if she hit someone? What if she killed someone?
I very much doubt that there are a group of PCs just Facebook surfing all day, but just investigating allegations or suspicions, in the same way police investigate all crimes. They don’t just randomly knock on peoples doors and hope they find a criminal.
I hear people saying that police should be focusing on more serious crimes etc. But this is how we have ended up with a generation of youths who do not respect the law. If they know they can get away with drinking, smoking and driving underage and other such crimes, then that will become the norm, and they will push it even further. The police need to give a strong message that petty crime will not be tolerated. Yes it is a waste of time and resources investigating these, but that is not the fault of the Police but the petty criminals committing the crimes. Lets remember who is to blame here and stop pointing our finger at the police.
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