Should Criminal Justice Agencies maintain a social presence?
I strongly agree that the Criminal Justice Agencies should do so as the media have time and again been on the ground and assisted the law enforcers fight crimes and do thorough investigations. They are, therefore, able to share information about the suspects with clips and photos of offenses committed, should the Criminal Justice Agencies have an excellent working relationship.
Should the Police Departments have a dedicated social media Unit?
Here, I do hold a double-opinion. By having police media, it will weaken the freedom of other public media houses. It will result in the police only reporting what the deem fit for public consumption while at the same time covering up for some crimes against humanity and social injustices committed by the police departments. They may also have it to communicate within their channels about criminal activities but be independent of the public and private media, (Oliveira, & Welch, 2013).
How have social media sites assisted law enforcement in fighting and investigating a crime?
Social media has always played a key role in bringing sanity to the streets all over the world. For instance, the Facebook platform has been in the spotlight where women have groups that cover social injustices that fellow women go through as the result of the male-dominated form of societies. The media gets to reach the abused human. The police arrive to arrest law offenders (Meijer, & Torenvlied, 2016).
References
Meijer, A. J., & Torenvlied, R. (2016). Social media and the new organization of government communications: An empirical analysis of Twitter usage by the Dutch police. The American Review of Public Administration, 46(2), 143-161.
Oliveira, G. H. M., & Welch, E. W. (2013). Social media use in local government: Linkage of technology, task, and organizational context. Government Information Quarterly, 30(4), 397-405.