Determining Police Strategies in the Effective Use of Virtual Social Networks

The main use of social networks is to facilitate communication and interactions between people, which leads to the expansion of communication in today's world; but due to the use of these tools by profiteers, fraudsters and cybercriminals, the police, as the person responsible for establishing security and social order in the country, should use social networks strategically. The main goal of the current research is to investigate and determine police strategies in the effective use of virtual social networks and their strategic use for organizational goals.

In terms of its objectives this study is of an applied research type and in terms of method it is considered descriptive-analytical. It is conducted using the Analysis of Hierarchical Process (AHP) and field study and using questionnaire tools and a statistical community of 50 senior managers and experts mastered in the field of media and people who have sufficient knowledge and experience in social networks and police missions. After extracting seven strategies, the data was analyzed based on Export choice software.

The findings of the research showed the strategy of "measures and tools to prevent crimes and detect crimes" with 0.222 points, the strategy of "access to the latest technologies" with 0.180 points, the strategy of "controlling police operations as best as possible" with 0.158 points, the strategy of "training, informing and socialization" with 0.118 points, the strategy of "acquiring information about the accused" with 0.116 points, the strategy of "rapid dissemination of news and information" with 0.110 points, and the strategy of "transparency in activities" with 0.097 points.

The results of the research showed that the strategy of "preventive actions and tools and detection of crimes" has the highest priority in the strategic use of social networks by the police. Therefore, according to the speed of information exchange in virtual social networks in the field of education and information transfer, this strategy can be used to spread social warnings to prevent crimes.