DOT National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has made federal grants available to states to train law enforcement officers to use social media sites to identify events that may result in impaired driving or consumption by minors.
As of 2012, Michigan spent over $4.5 million through this program, and has trained over 100 local police officers to use social media sites to identify and target events.
They used a technique called crowdsourcing to gather more information for their investigations and create interactive communities of citizens who are ready to participate and engage when communicated with.
Their tendency to post before stories go public leads to a better control of the flow of information as well as journalist relying on police pages as quick and reliable resources.
[6] Facebook, a social network service, is increasingly being used by school administrations and law enforcement agencies as a source of evidence against student users.
In the early years of the site, these pages could be viewed by other registered users from the same college, including resident assistants, campus police, or others who signed up for the service.
A strategy to catch cyber-bullies is being implemented in Reading, Berkshire: It has become increasingly common for colleges and universities to use Facebook to investigate underage drinking and violations of dry campus policies.
Students who violate these policies may be discovered through photographs of illicit drinking behavior, membership in drinking-related groups, or party information posted on the Facebook website.