I-Team: Anti-social media makes criminal cases for police

CHICAGO (WLS) -- The ABC7 I-Team is investigating how police are using web pages and platforms to solve crimes and sometimes prevent them.

The new frontier for law enforcement is on a flat screen. The antisocial underbelly of social media is alleged criminals showing off their skills and weaponry, boasting about what they've done, or even posting plans for future crimes.

But there is no standard police practice when it comes to the way these platforms are being used to solve crimes, or even stop them from happening.

It is a 2014 version of "Catch Me If You Can": people posting pictures and videos of themselves with guns, drugs, making threats and sometimes confessions.

"In many aspects social media is the new graffiti," said Chicago Police Organized Crime Cmdr. Nick Roti.

But unlike graffiti, Instagram, Facebook and other social media platforms are not anonymous. Consider parolee Edward Catchings. Police say he posted pictures of himself in a bulletproof vest, holding a shotgun.

Chicago police say they saw the photos, arrested Catchings, and charged him with possession of body armor by a felon and unlawful use of a weapon. He pleaded guilty to the gun charge, was sentenced to two years in prison and is now on parole.

And consider Chicago rapper Young QC. He's pleaded not guilty to having his mother murdered so he could get at her money. Videos posted on social media show Qawmane Wilson giving away wads of cash. Authorities say the posts could be evidence at trial.

Despite cases cracked with social media, CPD does not have a full-blown social media command center, but relies instead on officers who regularly patrol the internet.

Chuck Goudie asks: "Analysts or investigators or sworn officers or civilians sit there 24 hours a day 7 days a week looking at the internet. Does that exist in the Chicago Police Department?"

Cmdr. Roti: "Well, we don't have it set up quite exactly as you describe where there is a social media nerve center."

Roti warns dependence on computers and social media has risks. Information may be old -- or untrue-- and can't replace human intelligence and street work.

Baltimore is trying to combine all of it in its watch center. Officers are assigned to computer consoles, cross-referencing social media with city street cameras to determine crime hot spots by looking for words, phrases and clues.

Chicago could do that, according to a recent study of Chicago police crime data paired with Twitter traffic from certain neighborhoods.

That combination, according to University of Virginia researchers, improved predictions for 19 of 25 crimes types including theft and assault. Even a tweet as simple as "I'm leaving for work" could tip off burglars.

"For example downtown, people are talking about shopping and being out in the city and what we found is that does correlate with theft so that is what the computer algorithms are identifying," said Matthew Gerber, Ph. D, Predictive Technology Lab at University of Virginia.

And across the Chicago suburbs police ramp up their own online patrols, sometimes just to monitor public events.

"There may not even be criminal activity but what we can do is we can put a finger on the pulse of the mood at that activity, event or venue and we can tell if people are becoming agitated," said Cmdr. Kristen Ziman, investigations bureau, Aurora Police Department.

Here in Aurora, police say they see crime-fighting results from this special app and from a Facebook page that allows users to anonymously identify crime suspects.

"As far as investigations go, the sky is the limit on this is what we are seeing," said Cmdr. Ziman.

In Chicago, police officials are lukewarm about the use of social media for predictive policing. But since that University of Virginia research was released the NYPD has expressed an interest. The real test is whether computer programs will cut crime any better than "hot spot" maps many police departments already use.