Forensics Journal - Stevenson University 2014 | Page 53

STEVENSON UNIVERSITY

Buncombe, Andrew. “Family of Sunil Tripathi - Missing Student
Wrongly Linked to Boston Marathon Bombing - Thank Well-Wishers
for Messages of Support.” The Independent. independent.co.uk, 26 Apr.
2013. Web. 8 Oct. 2013.

such as the 728 law enforcement agencies who answered in the 2013
Social Media Survey. The researchers should create a trend study that
is one of the three sub-types of longitudinal surveys. Since the research
will include a longitudinal survey, the analysis will be gathered over a
long period of time such as one year. To keep the populations consistent, the survey should focus on rural versus urban police departments.
The trend study would request police departments to submit the
number of cases that used any form of social media public outreach to
further the investigation. This could include a tip submitted on social
media, a photo posted to assist in identification, a cellphone video
tweeted to a police organization, or any submission over social media
by the public to help the investigation. In order for a case to count
towards the survey, the social media public outreach must further the
case in some way, such as providing evidence, assisting in identifying a
suspect or posting a location of stolen goods. The information should
be gathered at the end of the month for a year. The survey would then
show a year trend of social media public outreach and whether the
cases affected by social media are increasing, fluctuating, or decreasing.
The trends co ձ