The Law Enforcement Social Media Podcast: A Podcast for #LESM Professionals

Recently, there have been incidents involving school resource officers, patrol officers, and school administrators encountering belligerent, defiant students who are challenging the legality and the authority of these leaders in a school setting. 

When these incidents occur, cell phone video, is usually posted on social media, either during the incident, or immediately following it. As you can imagine, these videos, along with the attached comments, are usually one-sided and lead the viewer towards forming a particular opinion of the incident. Rarely, do the videos show the totality of the circumstances, as well as the moments prior to the record button being pushed.

In addition to these videos, America is seeing first hand the student-on-student violence which happens every day in our schools across the country. These videos are published on social media with the pure intent of causing harm to the victims and their families, as well as an insurmountable amount of embarrassment for the victims.

Our original intention with this episode was to discuss tips and techniques for dealing with these types of videos once they are published on social media. However, we quickly found there were members of the community who wanted to solely discuss one of the incidents. This particular incident involved a South Carolina student who refused to stop using her phone, and refused to leave the classroom, after being asked by the teacher, school principal and a police officer. The police officer eventually removed the student from the chair, placed her on the ground and handcuffed her. 

Due to the intensity of the conversation, we ran out of time to discuss the tips and techniques we wanted to share with our law enforcement viewers. We will attempt to reschedule this show in the future, but until then:

1. When video emerges which has a recording of a department member in a controversial situation, immediately review the video and any posts, social media platforms, hashtags, etc., so you can know the extent of the growth of the video.
2. Follow your department's protocol for notifying supervisors and personnel involved.
3. Acknowledge the video's presence on the particular platform or platforms where it has emerged and post something like, "The XYZ police department has been made aware of this video and is reviewing the incident. Our department is committed to providing the most professional service at all times, and we expect all members to adhere to this value as well. Should you have any further information or additional video which would aid in our review of this incident, please contact us at (555) 555-5555. Thank you in advance for your understanding and support of our department."
4. Continue to publish your normal content, however, be cognizant of any posts which might cause aggravation to the incident or those involved.
5. Should additional comments appear on your social media platforms in regards to the questionable video, reach out to other social media managers and seek their guidance on how to further handle the posts. Some might warrant addressing, while others may need to go unanswered.

Introducing Tony Moore

Tony Moore is a deputy sheriff with a large southern California law enforcement agency. His expertise is in social media and internet investigations, crypto-currencies, emerging internet trends and public information. He is a certified POST (Peace Officer Standards and Training) instructor with the State of California, teaching classes on social media, public information, internet investigations and computer forensics via the California Department of Justice (CADOJ).

Tony also instructs for Basic Cybercrime Investigation Course at the University of Southern California (USC) Viterbi School of Engineering. He’s been a guest speaker at the International Association Chiefs of Police (IACP) Annual Conference, Social Media, the Internet and Law Enforcement (SMILE) Conference, the Los Angeles Police Department’s (LAPD) Annual Detective Symposium, the California Crime Prevention Officers Association (CCPOA) Convention, and CFED West’s Annual Convention on the same topics.

In 2015, Tony was the recipient of the Peace Officers Association of Los Angeles County (POALAC) - Centurion Award for "Excellence in Innovative Communications and Government Social Media" and the Golden Post Award for "Best Use of Social Media in Solving Crime."

Watch this episode below or visit our YouTube channel to see more videos on various topics. You can also view this episode, which contains an additional hour of off-topic footage by clicking the Replay tab on our BLAB channel.

Safety and security on social media. Usually, we don't think about it until it's too late. We create an account on the most popular social media platforms, start typing away and posting pictures, and never think about who can see what.

It's not until something scary or dangerous happens that we take a step back, and start panicking. When our children or teens encounter a dangerous episode online, we become even more concerned.

In this episode of The Law Enforcement Social Media Podcast and COPS on BLAB, we speak with Janel Patterson, the CEO and co-founder of the new social media platform, Frienedy.

Frienedy allows people to invite their friends, family members, sports team members, project members, co-workers - you name it, into groups created on Frienedy.

So go ahead and post the pictures of summer vacation with the kids in the family group, without worrying about people at work seeing what you do on your private time. After you're done with that, head over to your child's 5th grade classroom group and check in to see what assignments your child's teacher has issued for homework this weekend. And again, no one can see the classroom's group except the teacher and current parents.

These are just a couple examples of how you can use Frienedy. However, the greatest part of the platform is the ability to create accounts for your young children, so that you can teach them how to use social media safely.

With Frienedy, you can now teach your children how to use social media - the right way. For the first time, you'll be able to show them the correct way to post something. From making sure the words they use don't offend someone to ensuring they don't constantly post negative content which might offend people.

As a parent, you'll me able to monitor your child's conversation, without embarrassing them or making it seem like you don't trust them.  If you do see your child post something inappropriate, you can now have a healthy conversation about it offline, and before they learn bad habits.

With Frienedy, what your child posts today, stays within the platform. The posts do not get indexed by any of the search engines, thus making those comments and pictures, private and secure. 

Since employers and colleges are scanning social media for information about prospective candidates and future students, there is no better time than when a child is young to start creating a great, positive, digital resume through good use of social media.

If you want to learn more, visit their website at Frienedy.com

There are many topics to teach when we speak about teaching social media to children. These are the things many of us weren't taught, and had to learn the hard way. 

Because of the depth of these topics, they each deserve their own article or session on our podcast or BLAB. However, we'll give you some topics to get you started:

• Digital Literacy - What are authentic websites, who are the people putting information out on the web, is it fact or fiction?
• Digital Ethics - Stealing other people's work, like photos, videos and music, for their own use, without payment or permission
• Digital Student Conduct - Cheating on exams by using smart technology, videos and photos, plagiarism, online conduct towards school rules
• Cyberbullying - What it is, how to recognize it, and how to handle it, both as a friend of a victim, or a victim of it themselves
• Online Sexual Solicitation - What it is and how to handle it, knowing who to talk to about it, and why they should not solicit it themselves
• Online Privacy - How to keep their identities, photos and videos safe and secure
• Digital Security and Safety - How to safely and properly use an electronic device, both on the web and off the web
• Digital Resume - Creating a great persona online which speaks volume to their character, ethics, education and qualities

Along with our website, podcast and Blab show, there are other great resources to help parents and students learn about social media safety and security. 

• Cyberwise.com
• Netsmartz.org
• Facebook.com/Safety
• About.Twitter.com/Safety
• ConnectSafely.org
• FOSI.org
• iKeepSafe.org
• CommonSenseMedia.org

Pursuant to a degree in International Business from Illinois Wesleyan University and a 20-year career in corporate sales and management, Janel Patterson chose to leave the corporate world behind to co-found Frienedy.comafter a personal experience with her daughter on social media.

Janel set out on a mission to create a safe, COPPA compliant, site that would accomplish two objectives: give parents a way to introduce their children to social media on their terms in a safe place, and create a whole new way to help families, classrooms, sports teams, and groups of all types connect and collaborate privately in a single application.  

Three and a half years of development later, Janel and her team launched investor- backed www.frienedy.com in April 2015. Janel is also the founder of the parenting blog,www.electronicparenting.com, and speaks regularly to schools (both students and faculty), parent groups, and businesses about creating a positive digital presence and staying safe online.

Watch this episode below or visit our YouTube channel to see more videos on various topics. You can also view this episode, which contains an additional hour of off-topic footage by clicking the Replay tab on our BLAB channel.

On October 16, 2006, Tina Meier’s life took a devastating turn when her 13-year-old daughter, Megan Taylor Meier, took her own life after being cyberbullied by an adult neighbor. In December of 2007, Tina Meier founded the Megan Meier Foundation, a non-profit whose mission is to promote awareness, education and positive change in response to the issues surrounding bullying, cyberbullying and suicide.

Tina worked closely with Senator Scott Rupp and Governor Matt Blunt’s Internet Task Force for the State of Missouri to help pass Senate Bill 818, which amended the harassment and stalking laws to include electronic communication in August of 2008.

Additionally, Tina spread the Foundation’s message and Megan’s story through national and international media appearances, including network television stations, radio, news magazines and syndicated talk shows. She accepted a Presidential invitation to attend the 2011 White House Anti-Bullying Conference, presented at the U.S. Department of Education’s Safe and Drug-Free Schools National Conference in Washington, DC and served as a consultant during the production of the ABC Family movie, “Cyberbu//y.”

Today, Tina continues to travel throughout the country educating youth, parents, educators and professionals on the consequences associated with the harmful effects of bullying and cyberbullying.

Visit the Megan Meier Foundation at http://www.meganmeierfoundation.org/  

Although our functions as social media managers are to promote the good works of our departments on social media, as well as pursue after those who are committing crimes using the various social media platforms, it is our ethical duty to be knowledgeable about all aspects of cyberbullying. Here are the following components all LESM managers, as well as regular social media managers, should know:

• Recognition: How to recognize both online and offline when cyberbullying is occurring
• Psychological Effects: What toll does cyber bullying take on all parties involved, to include the bully, the victim, parents, and friends?
• Prevention: What can we as social media managers do to help prevent cyber bullying?
• Investigations: How to pursue after a cyber bully and what you'll need for a conviction
• Education: Educating our communities, as well as re-training victims, parents  and offenders on the use of social media

Don't forget to follow us on Twitter and Facebook and get on over to iTunes, subscribe to the show and leave us a review. 

In this episode of The Law Enforcement Social Media Podcast, we had the fortunate opportunity to speak with noted leading social media marketing genius Traci Reuter.

Law enforcement social media is different from the business marketing world, in that we don't have funds for high-end marketing campaigns and the skillset most social media managers have is somewhat limited.  However, that's why we exist here at LawEnforcement.Social. We're striving every day to give police officers, deputy sheriffs, civilian employees and others who manage law enforcement social media, those skills to take their programs to the next level.

In order to help us cops, we're very fortunate and honored to have Ms. Traci Reuter from the Social Media Marketing Happy Hour. Traci and her colleague, Ms. Dawn Marrs Ortiz, are the founders of their company which specializes in teaching the complexities of social media branding and marketing.

Traci Reuter is a social media and digital marketing strategy expert. She is a recognized speaker, industry expert & co-host of The Social Media Marketing Happy Hour Podcast, which has been featured by Entrepreneur.com as the #1 Value packed podcast for entrepreneurs.

The Social Media Marketing Happy Hour Podcast received over 1 Million downloads in the first 5 months of being on air. Traci coaches & consults for small businesses, entrepreneurs, solopreneurs & home business owners. She has helped 100’s of small businesses with their social media marketing strategy, and generating leads & sales from their social media marketing efforts.

Traci is a certified customer acquisition specialist, which is just a fancy name for “a paid traffic expert." Traci is consulted as an industry voice who is in tune, on top of, and ahead of trends with the pulse of what’s working now in digital and social media marketing.

You can visit Traci's website at http://happyhourhangouts.com/ and you can subscribe to the podcast by clicking here.

You can follow Traci on Twitter at @TraciReuter

The show's hosts, Mike Bires, Marc Marty, and Arlen Castillo are highly qualified and experienced law enforcement officers who manage their department's law enforcement social media programs. With Traci's help, you'll learn the following in this episode:

• Why engagement is more than just talking back and forth
• Techniques to use to gain traction on social media
• Some basic blogging techniques
• Sources of inspiration and ideas
• Getting your community to want more from you

Leave Us a Review and Subscribe To the Show on iTunes or Stitcher Radio. 

Show Participants

Parent Organization: LawEnforcement.Social Website: http://lawenforcement.social Twitter: @LEDotSocial Facebook: http://Facebook.com/LEDotSocial Email: [email protected] Podcast: The Law Enforcement Social Media Podcast is available on iTunes and Stitcher

Show Product: COPS on BLAB by LESMLive

Twitter: @LESMLive for show listings and replay information only Facebook: http://Facebook.com/LESMLive BLAB: http://BLAB.im/LESMLive

Hosts

Mike Bires

Founder, LawEnforcement.Social

Email: [email protected] Twitter: @OfficerBires Facebook: http://Facebook.com/OfficerBires LinkedIn: http://Linkedin.com/in/MikeBires Phone: (626) 712-3546

Marc Marty

Co-host, LawEnforcement.Social

Email: [email protected]

Twitter: @MPDMarc

Arlen Castillo

Co-host, LawEnforcement.Social

Email: [email protected]

Twitter: @EMPD_Castillo

Guests

Saba Sedighi

Founder, iStream Social

Website: http://istreamsocial.com Email: [email protected] Twitter: @SabaSedighi LinkedIn: http://Linkedin.com/in/sabasedighi

Nicole Abboud

Attorney, Law Office of Nicole Abboud

Website: http://abboud-law.com Podcast: http://genwhylawyer.com

Twitter: @NicoleAbboud Phone: (323) 813-8271

Email: [email protected]

Mitch Jackson

Attorney, Jackson & Wilson, Inc.

Website: http://jacksonandwilson.com

Twitter: @MitchJackson Phone: (949) 855-8751 Email: [email protected]

Resources For Followers

Template Letter To Stop Trolls - https://streaminglawyer.wordpress.com/2015/10/14/how-to- stop-internet-trolls/

How To Deal With Trolls From Social Media Examiner -

http:// www.socialmediaexaminer.com/social-media-trolls/

Haters: How To Deal With Haters and Trolls of Your Business -

http:// www.socialmediaexaminer.com/deal-with-haters-and-trolls/

How To Handle Online Sexism: Laugh at the trolls and fight back -

http://mashable.com/ 2015/09/07/how-to-handle-online-sexism/#kQ7AhIwQhsqO

Badass Female Engineers Are Shutting Down Sexist Trolls -

http://mashable.com/ 2015/08/04/i-look-like-an-engineer/#_uPswbhu_aql

Twitter Safety Center - https://about.twitter.com/safety

Facebook Safety Center - https://www.facebook.com/safety

Instagram Community Guidelines - https://help.instagram.com/477434105621119/

The FBI Cyber Crime Center - https://www.fbi.gov/about-us/investigate/cyber

Pew Research Center - Online Harassment Findings -

http://www.pewinternet.org/ 2014/10/22/online-harassment/

Pew Research Center - The Darkest Side of Online Harassment: Menacing Behavior - http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2015/06/01/the-darkest-side-of-online-harassment- menacing-behavior/

California Penal Code Section 422 - Criminal Threats - http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/ codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=PEN§ionNum=422

• Any person • Willfully threatens to commit a crime • Which will result in death or great bodily injury • With specific intent • Verbally, in writing or through electronic means • Is to be taken as a threat • So unequivocal, unconditional, immediate and specific • Causes another to fear for his/her own safety or the safety of immediate family

California Penal Code Section 528.5 - Malicious Online Impersonation -

http:// leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=PEN§ionNum=528.5

• Any person • Knowingly and without consent impersonates another person • Online through a website, or • By other electronic means • For purpose of harming, intimidating, threatening or defrauding • Electronic means includes email and social networking sites

California Penal Code Section 646.9 - Stalking - http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/ codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=PEN§ionNum=646.9

• Any person • Willfully, maliciously and repeatedly • Follows or harasses • AND makes a credible threat • To place that person in fear for his or her safety or safety of family members

California Penal Code Section 647(j)(4)(A) - Distribution of Intimate Images -

http:// leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=PEN§ionNum=647

• Any person who intentionally distributes • An image of an identifiable person, or • The image of the person engaged in sexual acts • When the person believed the image would remain private • The distributor knows or should know the distribution of the image would cause • Serious emotional distress • And the person suffers that distress

California Penal Code Section 653m - Annoying -

http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/ codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=PEN§ionNum=653m

• Any person who uses electronic means • Uses obscene language, or • Threatens to injure person or property or a family members person or property • With the intent to annoy

California Penal Code Section 653m(b) - Annoying or Harassing Through Electronic Means - http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml? lawCode=PEN§ionNum=653m.

• Every person with intent to annoy or harass • Repeatedly contacts by means of electronic device • Regardless whether a conversation ensues

California Penal Code Section 653.2(a) - Online Harassment -

http:// leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml? lawCode=PEN§ionNum=653.2

• Any person who posts or transmits • Personal identifying data or a harassing message • Intent to cause fear for safety or safety of family members

Retired Toronto Police Sergeant Tim Burrows joins the crew this week on The Law Enforcement Social Media Podcast and COPS on BLAB show.

Hosted by Mike Bires alongside Marc Marty and Arlen Castillo, the discussion about how to make law enforcement's use of Facebook pages more effective for the areas they serve. The way to do this is to spotlight and engage your community in a manner which almost brings more attention to the community, than the police department itself.

Although not mentioned on the show, some great examples of law enforcement engaging their communities through spotlighting their community, community members, and events are:

Arlington Police Department

Brimfield Police Department

Irvine Police Department

Mountain View Police Department

Rosenberg Police Department

And yeah, we're a little partial to the Azusa Police Department, El Monte Police Department and Montebello Police Department Facebook pages.

During this recording, some followers asked some great questions, such as:

• How do police officers cope with the stress of the profession?
• How do we handle "bad" police officers?
• How can parents help their children see police officers in a good light?
• What's the one thing we like about the profession, and one thing we wish we could change?

Although we publish our podcast every Monday morning, you can interact with our show by tuning in on Thursday nights at 8 p.m. P/T to BLAB.im/LESMLive. Ask your questions and have your voice heard on our live and uncensored show on BLAB.

Make sure to follow us @LEDotSocial and @LESMLive on Twitter, as well as Facebook.com/LEDotSocial andFacebook.com/LESMLive.

Subscribe To The Show On iTunes And Leave Us a 5 Star Review 

In this episode of The Law Enforcement Social Media Podcast, Arlen, Marc and I took the show onto the new live video streaming service called BLAB.

If This Then That also know as IFTTT.  Do you use it?  Well you should.  In episode 19 of the LESM Podcast, we teach you how add recipes and create your own for some really cool automation.

In Episode 18 of The Law Enforcement Social Media Podcast, we talk about a program to make your use and effectiveness of Instagram better, and we talk some Instagram basics.

Latergramme helps you manage your Instagram content and the scheduling of pictures from one place.  You can upload images from your computer, collaborate on your posts, manage one or multiple Instagram accounts, and manage accounts with your team.

A free Latergramme account provides you with 30 posts per month (these are posted photos, not uploads), 2 Instagramprofiles, and 1 Team member. If you add two Instagram handles, the 30 posts/ month are shared between the two accounts. Your 30 posts/ month are reset at the beginning of each month.  There are also paid versions if you wish to publish more posts.

Latergramme is in full compliance with Instagram’s terms of service.   Latergramme does not store your username and password and they do not fully automate posting. They make content scheduling for Instagram as easy as possible.

Latergramme can manage multiple Instagram accounts. Depending on the plan you sign up for, free and premium subscriptions can connect two Instagram accounts, whereas business subscriptions can connect upwards of five.

Latergramme is perfect for managing social accounts with teams. Whether it's having managers approving content, team members publishing posts or contributors submitting media. Premium subscriptions can add up to 2 team members whereas business subscriptions can add more.

The best part of Latergramme is the fact that you can format your text for posting the way you want.  Simply type your content into the website on your computer and when you are ready to post, simply copy the text from the app on your phone and past it into Instagram, upload your pic and post!

So if you’re tired of typing on a smartphone all your text, and want to be able to upload photos from your computer, thenLatergramme is for you!

Connect With Latergramme:

Latergram.me

@Latergramme

Facebook.com/Latergram

Here are some notes from the show which you might find helpful:

Bit.ly

Remember to use a bit.ly link for the one hyperlink you are allowed to have, which is in your bio section. The reason for this? It allows you to track the analytics on people clicking on the link.

What type of link?

Consider having the link go to more than just your department’s website. If your Instagram account is solely for recruiting, then you’ll want that link to go to a page that’s relevant to the topic, like a recruitment page or employment page.

Keywords

Make sure to place relevant keywords in your username, and consider using emojis as well. You’re allowed to use 33 characters in the username area, so place words relevant to how you want to be found.

In the bio section, you are allowed 150 characters. Again, use keywords in this are as well. It will help you be found and give your page some free marketing in searches.

It’s all about personable engagement

Instagram is where people connect with your department on a truly personal level. Talk with them that way as well. There’s no room for typical government, monotone answers. You can be colorful, entertaining, enlightening and friendly, while maintaining professionalism.

Like and comment

When you see photos you like, make a comment and make it a good one. You want to truly share why their photo inspired you to comment, or what made you like it. Don’t just say, “cool pic.” That’s a trash comment. Give some sustenance to it.                               

Hashtags

Always add hashtags into your posts. Although you are allowed quite a few on Instagram posts, don’t get too crazy. Keep them relevant to the topic or the group you are trying to grab attention from.

In this episode of The Law Enforcement Social Media Podcast, Arlen Castillo discusses her favorite apps for cleaning photos, we discuss some good resources and tips for suicide prevention posts on social media, and we interview an awesome teen who’s making a difference in the fight against cyber bullying.

Cleaning Photos

So what is cleaning photos? This is a term we use around here for making sure photos are just right for posting on social media or our website.  Cleaning refers to cropping, filtering, size resolution and more. If it has to do with altering a photo, we call it cleaning.

Arlen mentioned in the podcast the following apps she uses on her smartphone to clean photos:

Facetune - A fun and powerful portrait and selfie photo editor.

FotoRus - An all in one photo app that allows you to edit photos and create pic collages.

Afterlight - An image editing app that allows you to edit your photos quickly.

BigLens - A photo editing app that is great to use when you want to blur out portions of a pic, such as a license plate or street sign.

No Crop - An app that allows you to resize pics and videos for Instagram without having to crop your photos.

Suicide Prevention Resources

Some of our favorite resources for suicide prevention messages are:

The American Foundation for Suicide Prevention

www.AFSP.org

@AFSPNational

facebook.com/AFSPNational

Take the information they provide and create multiple tweets or posts from each section. Make sure to include their handle (Twitter) or name (Facebook) when sharing on social media.

The Veteran’s Crisis Line and Military Crisis Line

veteranscrisisline.net

You’ll find their tool for creating inspirational infographics at the the following address:

veteranscrisisline.net/GraphicGenerator.aspx

The ReThink App

We spoke with Trisha Prabhu, the inventor of the ReThink App, which is a non-intrusive, innovative, patented software product that effectively stops cyberbullying before the damage is done.

The world is currently in the midst of a technology revolution. There are 1.8 billion teens around the globe, and technology is increasingly at the hands of every adolescent. With more adolescents being online, more are getting cyberbullied. Cyberbullied victims suffer from depression, anxiety, low self-esteem, and more likely to drop out of school. Several solutions that are in place today address bullying after the damage is done. ReThink is the first ever solution to proactively prevent cyberbullying before the damage is done.

Visit ReThinkWords.com

@ReThinkWords

facebook.com/rethinkwords

Connect With Us

Website:

lawenforcement.social

Twitter:

https://twitter.com/LEDotSocial

Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/LEDotSocial

Private Facebook Group:

lawenforcement.social/facebook

Don't forget to subscribe to the podcast and please leave us a review.