The rising popularity of Instagram has led the San Francisco Police Department to hire an "Instagram officer" to search the social media site and identify criminals. Eduard Ochoa, the "Instagram officer" sifts through Instagram daily, looking for anything that can be perceived as criminal activity or any people who might be connected to a crime, according to Fox News. He's been allegedly working as an online officer for years, but it was only last week that his role officially appeared in court documents.
Using social media to catch criminals isn't a new means for authorities. For example, Digital Trends reported a story about how one man was arrested in 2013 after he posted a selfie with stolen goods on Instagram.
Michael Whalen, a Criminal Justice and Legal Studies instructor for South University Online, emphasized how effective social media can be for fighting crime.
"YouTube is a popular place for people to post videos of fights, vandalism, etc," Whalen told South Source, a publication at South University. "With video cameras integrated with nearly every cell phone these days, criminal behavior is caught on tape and shared every day. Sometimes the clips are uploaded by the offenders themselves."
However, when it comes to social media helping police catch criminals, Facebook comes out on top. In fact, criminals usually bring it on themselves. One man was arrested soon after "liking" his own wanted ad, and a woman was picked up by cops soon after posting a selfie wearing a recently stolen dress. The most brazen example, however, is the story of a wanted man who taunted police on Facebook with a "catch me if you can" message before being arrested the very next day.
