The role of virtual social networks in organizational development of policing agencies

Online social networks and cyberspace are considered as one of the social platforms through which most services, operations and activities are performed. The police, as an organization that aims to establish order and security and ensure individual and Community safety, in order to achieve organizational goals and priorities, is obliged to use cyberspace extensively. In this research, organizational development of the policing agencies was examined in two dimensions (namely law enforcement services and law enforcement operations); and the roles of virtual social networks were investigated in three dimensions (namely participatory, communication and information) have been investigated. This an applied and descriptive research type.Data were collected through a researcher-made questionnaire from the statistical population of Iran’s police staff using 310 cluster random sampling method. Through simple regression test, the relationship between the independent variable (cyberspace function) and the dependent variable (police organizational development) has been investigated and the degree of influence of the dependent variable on the independent variable has been obtained.The results show that the functions of virtual social networks affect the organizational development of policing agencies. The information, communication and participatory function of virtual social networks have an impact on the development of law enforcement operations, and the participatory function has the greatest impact on the development of law enforcement operations. Communication and participatory functions affect the development of law enforcement services and the information function of virtual social networks does not affect the development of law enforcement services