ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to describe how prosecutors and police officers in Poland use social media data to investigate criminal cases. I rely on the first study10 to be conducted with prosecutors and previous research on police officers. Therefore, this chapter is one of the first exploratory studies on the activities of prosecutors. On the basis of 116 interviews with prosecutors, a picture is drawn of law enforcement’s use of social media, also providing insight into the results of an additional 60 interviews conducted with police officers in 2019.
While prosecutors in Poland play a crucial role in criminal investigations, overseeing the police and making their own evidence-related decisions, the process of securing social media evidence is most often part of police officers’ duties. Thus, both parties have unique perspectives on social media usage. This chapter presents how prosecutors use social networking sites, including the reasons why some decline or are reluctant to do so. Various factors have been taken into consideration, such as whether private use of social media, or training in doing so, foster investigation-related use of these tools. Through comparison of the findings with previous research on police officers, a general perspective is presented on how law enforcement personnel in Poland use social media for criminal investigation purposes.
