A growing and revealing source of information about any particular individual can be found in their online, social media activity. Threat assessment professionals can learn the intentions, violence capability and mental status of a subject through their postings and social media accounts. The workshop will review significant cases such as the Finnish man who posted videos of himself pointing a gun at the camera and stating, “You die next ” or a Japanese assailant who “tweeted” his plan to go on a stabbing rampage minutes before the event. Domestically, the man who shot two officers at the Pentagon posted his beliefs in Craigslist and in his own blog. In the ever growing world of social media and “online lives”, investigators need to consider the wealth of valuable information from sites such as Facebook & YouTube
Learning Point 1 - Understand the importance of investigating online activity in threat assessments
Learning Point 2 - How to investigate social media activity of the assessment subject
Learning Point 3 - Understand the possible legal considerations and ramifications