Recently, the
National Institute of Justice (NIJ) identified and assessed high-priority needs for law enforcement's social media data analysis. This analysis provides vital information to tackle crime risks, hold offenders accountable, and ensure physical safety.
Social media is one of the fastest-growing networks in the world. According to a careful analysis, approximately 70% of the world's population utilizes social media platforms for various purposes. Platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter, and TikTok have millions of users and are growing rapidly.
With the increase of social media, people's behavior has also changed. It has become challenging for law enforcement to collect and analyze data to find criminals or offenders correctly. Excel, a powerful tool for data management, offers solid features that can help law enforcement agencies build detailed contact lists from social media data.
Adapting to these new challenges is imperative in law enforcement. One effective approach involves forming undercover or covert social media profiles, which can significantly enhance investigations. With
Excel for crime analysis, law enforcement officers can analyze data for different types of investigations.
Some of them are.
Human Trafficking Investigations: In cases involving human trafficking, covert accounts can play a pivotal role in tracking down victims. Undercover profiles allow investigators to monitor the apps and platforms victims may use discreetly. This approach helps build a comprehensive understanding of the victim's situation and contributes to their rescue.
Missing Persons Cases: Covert accounts can be instrumental in investigating missing persons. These accounts enable investigators to collect additional data for valuable leads. Investigators can obtain valuable evidence by examining a suspect's or victim's online activity on Excel, including check-ins at bars or details about their whereabouts.
Vehicular Homicide: In vehicular homicide cases, undercover profiles can be employed to analyze a suspect's online behavior before a fatal accident. Information regarding the suspect's activities, such as bar visits or alcohol consumption, can provide crucial insights into the case.
Attending our
Microsoft Excel training courses, law enforcement offices can easily create an elaborate contact lists using social media data. Here is a step-by-step guide on how to leverage Excel for this purpose.
Gather social media data using web scraping tools like BeautifulSoup or Selenium in Python or dedicated software like Octoparse. Make sure to comply with ethical and legal guidelines when scraping data.
Utilize social media platform APIs (such as Twitter API or Facebook Graph API) to collect data. Obtain the necessary permissions and adhere to the platforms' terms of service.
For smaller datasets, manually collect information from social media profiles and posts.
Export the gathered data into a CSV file or an Excel workbook. Most scraping tools and APIs allow data to be exported in CSV or desired format, which can be easily imported into Excel.
Steps to Import:
Open Excel and go to Data > Get External Data > From Text.
Select your CSV file and import it.
Follow the Text Import Wizard to organize the data correctly.
Organize the imported data into a tabular format with relevant columns such as Name, Username, Contact Information (Email, Phone Number), Social Media Handle, and other pertinent details. Use Excel’s filtering tools to remove duplicates, irrelevant information, or incomplete records.
Ensure all data entries are valid and consistent. Use Excel functions like TRIM, CLEAN, and PROPER to standardize text data. Use Excel's “Remove Duplicates” feature to ensure each contact is unique.
Go to Data > Remove Duplicates and select the channels/columns to check for duplicates.
Manually review the data to ensure accuracy and completeness.
Sorting and filtering organize the data according to various criteria, such as location, frequency of contact, or relevance. Create pivot tables to summarize and analyze the data, identifying key patterns or trends.
Go to Insert > PivotTable and select the data range.
Drag and drop fields/data into rows, columns, values, and filters.
Apply conditional formatting to highlight essential contacts or entries that meet specific criteria.
Go to Home > Conditional Formatting and set your rules.
If available, enrich the contact list with additional data points, such as job titles, organization affiliations, or areas of expertise. Cross-reference with other databases to ensure the contact information is current and comprehensive.
Create visual representations of the data using charts and graphs to identify trends and insights.
Go to Insert > Chart and choose the appropriate chart type.
Develop Excel dashboards to provide a dynamic view of the contact list and associated analytics. Officers can learn how Excel contributes to crime analysis using social media data.
With thesesteps, law enforcement officers can analyze social media data in Excel to obtain insightful data. The elaborate social media data analysis is necessary as it can help officers find clues and gaps in a certain case. In short, with the help of social media data and expertise in Excel, officers can maintain peace in the neighborhood competently.
Blueforce Learning is a platform that believes in proficiency and mastery of Excel in law enforcement. For this, we have introduced in-depth
online law enforcement training courses that help officers and law enforcement learn and leverage the latest technology to solve crimes and maintain peace.
Why do officers prefer Excel for crime analysis?
Officers prefer Excel because it is easy to use, sorts data, finds trends (charts) and makes reports using a few taps.
What do officers learn from Excel training courses?
Officers can learn data analysis formulas for crime patterns and create presentations for clear communication. In short, this increases their proficiency in using data to keep the community safe.