Sponsored by PenLink
As a law enforcement investigator, you know that cracking communication patterns is key to solving cases and catching bad actors. You’ve been doing this for decades, subpoenaing and analyzing call detail records and using court-ordered pen registers and wiretaps on landline and cellular telephones. Now there’s an even larger avenue for interpersonal communications: the internet.
Similar to the way cellphones enabled people to talk with one another from anywhere, smartphones have made the internet mobile and Americans have embraced this technology. According to a recent Pew Research Center study, 82% of cellphones are now smartphones, and people are communicating via a variety of means including calls, texts, email, chat applications and social media platforms.
While the use of social media is still considered new to many in law enforcement, the revelations that can be brought forward by looking into someone’s online presence may prove vital.
“Social media is integral to child-exploitation investigations. Our cases would be nothing if we weren’t able to obtain the contents of subjects’ or victims’ social media accounts,” said Elizabeth Bigham, special agent of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI).
In order to get a complete picture of an individual’s communication patterns, investigators need to collect and analyze records from all channels – and with the right tools and resources, they can expand their investigations beyond traditional call record analysis.
Download this free white paper, which features insights from the GBI, to learn:
- The multiple social media platforms people are using to communicate.
- How investigators are using social media platforms to reveal connections, trends and relationships.
- How valuable information gathered from social media platforms can be in an investigation.
Fill out the form below to download the free white paper.