By Police1 Staff
SAN FRANCISCO — The San Francisco Police Department is ahead of the game on social media, Business Insider reported.
After an appeals court upheld a firearms conviction that cited Instagram photos as evidence, insight into the department’s social media digging was revealed.
In the case last month, a minor under the Instagram account “40glock” posted pictures of himself with a gun in his waistband in 2013. Police saw the images and did a probation search of his house, which led to a conviction.
The court documents revealed SFPD employs their “Instagram officer” to routinely check social media for evidence. The court ruling identified the officer and how he tracks criminals through the social media sites.
“Officer Ochoa scanned Instagram, a social media website, looking for postings,” the ruling said. “Officer Ochoa was the ‘Instagram officer’ in his department and has been so for three or four years. His training and experience had taught him ‘how to monitor and track individuals through Instagram’.”
An SFPD spokesperson told the publication they use officers on all social media sites during the course of investigations. Based on their expertise, they may be assigned to a specific website, informally naming them the Instagram or Facebook officer.