This research is a descriptive study of the misuse of social media in law enforcement from 2011 to present. The research will use a content analysis of social media policies coupled with survey of 10 questions administered anonymously to students at the Department of Criminal Justice Training. This mixed method approach will attempt to explain the growing number of police officers and other law enforcement employees who find themselves in violation of the agency policies. The survey consists of Likert scale style questions concerning the agreement with and understanding of social media policies, as well as the perception of privacy while using social media. The quantitative portion of the survey will gather data on age, education, race, gender, and agency type in an effort to see if any those variables correlate to policy violations. Since social media sites became popular in early to mid-2000’s there have been countless examples in the news of police officers and other law enforcement employees being suspended or fired because of poor choices made on social media sites. This study hopes to find a solution to this phenomenon or at the very least an explanation. While there was no statistical significance among dependent variables, there was a strong sense of privacy when using social media. The data showed that while there seemed to be an understanding of agency policy there were still a large number of violations occurring. During the content analysis the use of vague definitions and subjective standards could be the cause. Future works with this study would explore the connection between the subjective standards and the policy violations.
","abstract_html":"<p>This research is a descriptive study of the misuse of social media in law enforcement from 2011 to present. The research will use a content analysis of social media policies coupled with survey of 10 questions administered anonymously to students at the Department of Criminal Justice Training. This mixed method approach will attempt to explain the growing number of police officers and other law enforcement employees who find themselves in violation of the agency policies. The survey consists of Likert scale style questions concerning the agreement with and understanding of social media policies, as well as the perception of privacy while using social media. The quantitative portion of the survey will gather data on age, education, race, gender, and agency type in an effort to see if any those variables correlate to policy violations. Since social media sites became popular in early to mid-2000’s there have been countless examples in the news of police officers and other law enforcement employees being suspended or fired because of poor choices made on social media sites. This study hopes to find a solution to this phenomenon or at the very least an explanation. While there was no statistical significance among dependent variables, there was a strong sense of privacy when using social media. The data showed that while there seemed to be an understanding of agency policy there were still a large number of violations occurring. During the content analysis the use of vague definitions and subjective standards could be the cause. Future works with this study would explore the connection between the subjective standards and the policy violations. </p>","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Freeman, Christopher Lloyd"],"institution":"Eastern Kentucky University","degree_name":"Master of Science (MS)","degree_level":"Master's","degree_discipline":"Justice Studies","degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":[],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2016,"date_issued":"2016-01-01T08:00:00Z","date_published":"2016-01-01T08:00:00Z","updated_at":"2026-07-24T02:15:32Z","subjects":["Criminal Justice","Law Enforcement","Policy","Social Media","Law Enforcement and Corrections"],"languages":[],"rights":["Copyright 2016 Christopher Lloyd Freeman"],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"https://encompass.eku.edu/etd/366","outbound_label":"Repository record","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Freeman, Christopher Lloyd"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:publisher","label":"Institution","values":["Encompass Digital Archive, Eastern Kentucky University"]},{"key":"dc:type","label":"Dc Type","values":["Master Thesis"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_discipline","label":"Discipline","values":["Justice Studies"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_level","label":"Degree Level","values":["Master's"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_name","label":"Degree Name","values":["Master of Science (MS)"]},{"key":"thesis:institution_name","label":"Thesis Institution Name","values":["Eastern Kentucky University"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["Criminal Justice","Law Enforcement","Policy","Social Media","Law Enforcement and Corrections"]}]},{"id":"language_rights","label":"Language and Rights","entries":[{"key":"dc:rights","label":"Dc Rights","values":["Copyright 2016 Christopher Lloyd Freeman"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["https://encompass.eku.edu/etd/366"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description.abstract","label":"Abstract","values":["This research is a descriptive study of the misuse of social media in law enforcement from 2011 to present. The research will use a content analysis of social media policies coupled with survey of 10 questions administered anonymously to students at the Department of Criminal Justice Training. This mixed method approach will attempt to explain the growing number of police officers and other law enforcement employees who find themselves in violation of the agency policies. The survey consists of Likert scale style questions concerning the agreement with and understanding of social media policies, as well as the perception of privacy while using social media. The quantitative portion of the survey will gather data on age, education, race, gender, and agency type in an effort to see if any those variables correlate to policy violations. Since social media sites became popular in early to mid-2000’s there have been countless examples in the news of police officers and other law enforcement employees being suspended or fired because of poor choices made on social media sites. This study hopes to find a solution to this phenomenon or at the very least an explanation. While there was no statistical significance among dependent variables, there was a strong sense of privacy when using social media. The data showed that while there seemed to be an understanding of agency policy there were still a large number of violations occurring. During the content analysis the use of vague definitions and subjective standards could be the cause. Future works with this study would explore the connection between the subjective standards and the policy violations.
"]},{"key":"dc:format","label":"Dc Format","values":["application/pdf"]},{"key":"dc:source","label":"Dc Source","values":["Encompass Digital Archive: Online Theses and Dissertations"]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["Law Enforcement’s Social Media Punitive Anomaly"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:creator":["Freeman, Christopher Lloyd"],"dc:description.abstract":["This research is a descriptive study of the misuse of social media in law enforcement from 2011 to present. The research will use a content analysis of social media policies coupled with survey of 10 questions administered anonymously to students at the Department of Criminal Justice Training. This mixed method approach will attempt to explain the growing number of police officers and other law enforcement employees who find themselves in violation of the agency policies. The survey consists of Likert scale style questions concerning the agreement with and understanding of social media policies, as well as the perception of privacy while using social media. The quantitative portion of the survey will gather data on age, education, race, gender, and agency type in an effort to see if any those variables correlate to policy violations. Since social media sites became popular in early to mid-2000’s there have been countless examples in the news of police officers and other law enforcement employees being suspended or fired because of poor choices made on social media sites. This study hopes to find a solution to this phenomenon or at the very least an explanation. While there was no statistical significance among dependent variables, there was a strong sense of privacy when using social media. The data showed that while there seemed to be an understanding of agency policy there were still a large number of violations occurring. During the content analysis the use of vague definitions and subjective standards could be the cause. Future works with this study would explore the connection between the subjective standards and the policy violations.
"],"dc:format":["application/pdf"],"dc:identifier":["https://encompass.eku.edu/etd/366"],"dc:publisher":["Encompass Digital Archive, Eastern Kentucky University"],"dc:rights":["Copyright 2016 Christopher Lloyd Freeman"],"dc:source":["Encompass Digital Archive: Online Theses and Dissertations"],"dc:subject":["Criminal Justice","Law Enforcement","Policy","Social Media","Law Enforcement and Corrections"],"dc:title":["Law Enforcement’s Social Media Punitive Anomaly"],"dc:type":["Master Thesis"],"thesis:degree_discipline":["Justice Studies"],"thesis:degree_level":["Master's"],"thesis:degree_name":["Master of Science (MS)"],"thesis:institution_name":["Eastern Kentucky University"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-24T02:15:32Z"}