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CHAPTER 15
Social media and its role for LEAs: Review and applications
than platforms that allow only intermittent, textual exchanges. For example, when it 
comes to Virtual Crime Reporting technology, some resistances are identified due to 
the absence of real human contact. Whether an individual is willing to use a technol-
ogy or not depends on the individual's cognitive, conative and affective responses. 
Cognitive responses are related to personal beliefs, conative responses are related 
to the individual's willingness to engage, and affective responses are related to the 
individual's emotions (
Hoefnagel et al., 2012
).
Once a social media platform is established, binding users to the platform be-
comes an important issue, in order to foster an active, constant community. Reacting 
and responding to the posts of users is one of the most powerful ways to commit 
users to a service, as it increases the value of participation in the eyes of the users 
themselves (Utz, 2009). Hence getting a reply to an initial post increases the likeli-
hood that his person will post again (
Joyce and Kraut, 2006
).
Further it is crucial that the information on networks is perceived as truthful; oth-
erwise confidence in, and the perceived value of the service will decline (
Gentzkow 
and Shapiro, 2006
). Who communicates information also plays a role. Sadly, gender 
still seems to play a role in how credible information is perceived. For instance, we-
blogs by male authors are often considered more credible than weblogs from female 
authors (
Armstrong and McAdams, 2009
). Furthermore, credibility of information is 
also higher if the source is official rather than unofficial, but only if the communica-
tions are from a male source (
Armstrong and Nelson, 2005
).
FROM SOCIAL MEDIA TO LEA INTELLIGENCE
Figure 15.1
 shows a representative model of the processes LEAs must go through 
in order to exploit social media effectively as part of their wider intelligence 
strategies. As social media is now ubiquitous it can be applied to many LEA sce-
narios, as demonstrated earlier in the section “LEA Usage Scenarios for Social 
Media.”
There is a diverse and extensive range of social media platforms available today; 
and the number and variety of these platforms continues to increase. There are three 
main ways in which social media can be utilized by LEAs: