{"id":98309,"date":"2018-08-22T05:03:09","date_gmt":"2018-08-22T11:03:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/crime-fighting-theres-an-app-for-that\/"},"modified":"2018-08-22T05:03:09","modified_gmt":"2018-08-22T11:03:09","slug":"crime-fighting-theres-an-app-for-that","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/crime-fighting-theres-an-app-for-that\/","title":{"rendered":"Crime fighting: There\u2019s an app for that"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"\"
David Holub\/Special to the Herald<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Earlier this summer, a vehicle was found abandoned in La Plata County. Local law enforcement responded and had reason to believe the owner of the vehicle, a man from South Carolina, was suicidal and possibly dead.<\/p>\n

As search parties were being assembled in an attempt to locate the man, Suess Beyer, a forensic examiner for the La Plata County Sheriff\u2019s Office, began his search for the man using a computer. Beyer found the man\u2019s Facebook profile and sent him and his friends messages. His friends were able to get a hold of the man, who said his car broke down and he took a bus to get back to Durango. Beyer used Apple\u2019s FaceTime to confirm the man was OK.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe speed that we got this done using the tools that we have saved hours of sending more search parties out to try to find him,\u201d Beyer said. \u201cSomething that would have taken days to find out, we got handled in a few hours.\u201d<\/p>\n

Whether it be solving crimes, locating missing people or mining information about potential suspects, law enforcement has increasingly used social media to aid officers in their daily duties. As a forensic examiner, Beyer examines phones, computers and social media to gather information to aid investigations. Currently, he is working on 23 cases and will in some way investigate social media accounts for all of them.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe majority of people are all on social media,\u201d Beyer said. \u201cI\u2019m not saying that everyone uses social media, but there\u2019s a lot of people, and a majority of them use some sort of media.\u201d<\/p>\n

Beyer has an iPad with several social media applications that he uses to investigate crimes. Because new social media applications pop up all the time, Beyer regularly downloads the new apps.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s so many of them now that you have to keep on top of all of them,\u201d Beyer said. \u201cAnd they keep coming all the time, and as an officer, you have to do the research. They\u2019re not all going to be the same.\u201d<\/p>\n

For example, Beyer recently downloaded the app Tik Tok, formerly known as musical.ly, a live video broadcasting app that has recently increased in popularity. Though he has yet to use the app to help in an investigation, he believes the popularity of the app and the number of people on it will necessitate its use.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese apps are not designed for criminal activity, but people will find out how to use them for criminal activity,\u201d Beyer said.<\/p>\n

When Beyer is tasked with looking up a suspect or person of interest, he usually searches for them on social media platforms. A lot of people use similar usernames for multiple sites, so once he finds a common username, he can begin to gather information from various platforms. Even if people use fake names, with enough cross-referencing, Beyer can discover someone\u2019s true identity.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat used to be a dead-end \u2013 they used a fake name and a fake phone number \u2013 everyone is starting to link themselves in via numerous social media applications,\u201d Beyer said. \u201cThey use all kinds of them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Beyer uses fake profiles to scour the different social media platforms. He has four or five Twitter accounts, a couple of Instagram accounts and has so many Facebook profiles that he has lost count.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can do it with such ease now,\u201d Beyer said. \u201cIn four or five minutes, you have a fake page.\u201d<\/p>\n

If a potential suspect has a Facebook page set to private, all Beyer can use is the individual\u2019s profile picture. He has no legal authority to attempt to obtain information via any other means. The only information he can legally obtain is public posts, he said.<\/p>\n

Beyer also uses social media to investigate thefts. He uses some of the fake Facebook profiles to join online garage sale groups specific to Durango. When items are reported stolen, he\u2019ll simply search for what was missing and investigate from behind a computer screen.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt used to be you would search pawn shops,\u201d he said. \u201cNowadays, I just search these groups on Facebook or look on Craigslist. It\u2019s the same stuff that we do. It\u2019s just newer technology.\u201d<\/p>\n

Social media also allows the public to have a direct link of communication with law enforcement. For example, in early July, San Juan County Sheriff Bruce Conrad received a photo featuring three people illegally driving motorcycles<\/a> off-road over the alpine tundra in the Eureka Gulch area north of Silverton.<\/p>\n

Conrad posted the photo on the San Juan County Sheriff\u2019s Office Facebook page<\/a>, where the suspects were identified by commenters.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt worked like a charm,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Law enforcement also uses social media to post messages to the community, which can provide valuable information. Every Tuesday, the Durango Police Department posts a wanted poster on its Facebook page<\/a>. After the post is public, police regularly receive tips in the form of Facebook messages, which are passed along to officers during their daily online briefing.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome of the tips have helped us catch somebody quite a few times,\u201d said administrative officer Cindi Taylor, who runs the page. \u201cIt\u2019s helped us quite a bit.\u201d<\/p>\n

Though the department receives tips via the Facebook page, it isn\u2019t the intended use. The department\u2019s goal for the page is to improve its relationship with the community. The DPD posts community events, updates about investigations and Q&As, where users can ask questions and receive answers in a timely manner, she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur biggest thing is to be as transparent as possible with the community,\u201d Taylor said. \u201cWe just want to put everything out there and let people know what we\u2019re doing.\u201d<\/p>\n

asemadeni@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

enforcement use social media to solve crimes, find missing persons<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":98310,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5736,5735],"tags":[1065,13,1901],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-98309","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","category-news","tag-durango-police-department","tag-frontpage-lead","tag-la-plata-county-sheriff"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98309","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=98309"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98309\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/98310"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=98309"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=98309"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=98309"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=98309"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}