Cyber Crime and Cyber Terrorism

1. 
Distribution of information to the public regarding security issues to enhance 
preventive police tasks,
2. 
The improvement of operational efficiency by broadening public participation, and
3. 
The improvement of public trust in the police by raising accessibility and 
transparency.
In addition to this, social media also enables the acquisition of intelligence (see sec-
tion on LEA usage scenarios for social media in this chapter).

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Introduction
The diversity of purposes served by social media means that one can differenti-
ate between a performative aspect and a relational aspect of its use by LEAs. The 
performative
aspect refers to the use of social media as an instrument for the support 
of operations, either through the distribution or acquisition of information. Individual 
examples showcasing the application of services such as Twitter and Facebook in 
crime prevention and criminal conviction can be used to demonstrate their potential 
use case. For instance, in October 2008, a status note on Facebook aided in the reso-
lution of a first degree murder case in the Canadian city of Edmonton, while Belgian 
police have had positive experiences in using Facebook to prevent violent attacks 
between known hostile groups. According to the latest survey by the International 
Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP), the value of social media for police forces 
lies in its high potential for information dissemination in emergency and disaster 
situations, crime investigations, and public relations and community outreach initia-
tives (
IACP, 2013
). According to the same survey, 95.9% of US police forces now 
employ social media in their investigations, with 80.4% of those claiming that social 
media had aided in the resolution of a crime.
Next to the performative function, processes such as community outreach and 
public relations illustrate the