Police and Social Media

     An article in the New York times by social media journalist Raphael Minder  wrote how in Europe,  an arrest warrant was sent out and on social media, police officers told the world who the where looking for. Three minutes after the post was published, "the police received a Twitter message saying that the British family’s minivan had stopped for gasoline the night before on a highway in Eskoriatza, in northern Spain". This use of social media helped them find and contain the British family. By utilizing of social media, police officers showed the world that the use of  social media can help with the enforcement of the law. Minder also talked about how in Spain, police are using twitter to set up tweet raids, a strategy that "involves sending a general alert on social media, then inviting people with information to respond to a private email account". The use of this "practice has helped in the arrests of more than 500 people" in Spain alone. Social media is evolving police work not only in Spain, but in the whole world by helping them with the enforcement of laws.