Network Theory: Effectiveness of Social Media Networks Created by Sheriff Offices.

摘要

Police departments in the United States have struggled with ways to increase the involvement of their local community residents with law enforcement. Online social network web sites may be the new technological media method to achieve involvement of community residents with law enforcement agencies. Poor community involvement is centered on the problem of poor communication between community residents and sheriff offices. This quantitative hierarchical regression study was used to address the problem with an emphasis on social network theory. The effect of both frequency and quality of use of online social media on the dependent variables of crime solving and community relations, while controlling for population density and social economic status (SES), was employed. Based on a power analysis using hierarchical multiple linear regression analysis, assuming a medium effect size of 0.30, level of significance at 0.05, and four predictors (frequency of online social media use, quality of online social media use, county population density, and county SES), a sample size of 45 sheriff offices was needed. A sample of 52 provided sufficient data for the study. An on-line survey modeled after the validated International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) survey instrument was made available to the 75 county Arkansas sheriff offices. The predictor variable frequency accounted for a significant amount of the variation in both dependent variables. The predictor variable quality or variety of social media sources was not significant, so the null hypothesis was not rejected. However, more social media sources increase the significance of the frequency. Overall, Arkansas sheriffs supported the use of social media for both community relations and crime solving. Recommendations for future study would be a study replication of other states, population expansion, and consideration of other predictor or control variables evolving from research and theory.