What struck me as the most interesting while looking through
the social media accounts of the New York State police before and after the Dannemora
Prison Break incident earlier this year was the degree of increase in comments
and shares of the stories posted relating to these events compared to other
incidents covered by the social media pages, including the near-weekly updates
of images of the state’s most wanted fugitives. The Dannemora incident attracted
a high level of interest from both social media and the traditional media, which
lead to greater attention being given to the New York State Police social media
pages. While there is no question that social media can increase both public awareness
and public response to incidents that require a police response, I wonder how
valuable the tools were in the case of the Dannemora events and how many resources
should be devoted to monitoring social media by the police for this specific investigation.
The social media sites appeared fairly chaotic during these weeks. Most comments
I read would not have been particularly useful for the police and were, instead,
politicizing the event. While the police may find some useful leads on social
media, it seemed that the majority of comments on their own page were relating
to issues like gun control and the SAFE Act, which ultimately had little, if
anything, to do with the Dannemora issue. It seems that, during this time,
investigators would have had to filter through thousands of relatively useless
and sometimes inflammatory comments and may never have found a needle in that
haystack.
However, if the issue is keeping the public aware about
issues relating to the investigation, I think the New York State Police did a
decent job. While they were criticized for not being more upfront about the investigation,
I think it is important to remember the public safety strategy behind their
tactics. They were aware that if the public had access to any information
through social media or any other medium, the inmates would likely be able to
access that information and see what the police were reporting.
As a Central New Yorker, like most New Yorkers, the Dannemora
Prison Break issue dominated the news in my local community. As it unfolded,
the traditional media covered leads and supposed sightings throughout the
state. I remember hearing false reports about the inmates supposedly making it
to the Southern Tier region of the state, hundreds of miles from the region
where the prisoners were ultimately found. Police responded to these false
reports by devoting resources to search in that region, ultimately drawing some
focus away from the community around Dannemora, a fairly remote region outside
of Adirondack Park. I have to wonder if police relied on any leads from social
media for deciding how to devote resources and whether depending on social
media as a primary policing/transparency medium is appropriate.
One final concern I had with the Dannemora issue was how
valuable social media reports from police departments would be for citizens
living in the North Country, especially the outlying regions of Adirondack
Park, where the fugitives were ultimately found. I’ve been backpacking in the Adirondacks
and know that internet and cellular signals don’t work in most of the park and
many people living in the most remote areas of the North Country live in
regions without high speed internet or reliable cellular services and where
there is reliable service many people do not use it or simply can’t afford.
Because of this, the Police Department has to remember the value of other
mediums like radio and television for decimating information and even door-to-door
policing, which was conducted in some communities in the North Country.
Ultimately, the fugitives were found in one of the most remote areas of the
state where good cellular signals are still few and far between.
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