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Submit your award application by June 1, 2012.

Thomson Reuters is proud to partner with the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) in sponsoring the Award for Excellence in Criminal Investigation – an award that’s been established since 2003.   As in years past, the 2012 award will be given to a law enforcement agency, law enforcement unit, task force, or inter-agency task force in recognition of exceptional innovation and excellence in the area of criminal investigations, with the goal of sharing information to advance the art and science of criminal investigations. 

The IACP Police Investigative Operations Committee will evaluate each application and select a winner and two runner-up recipients. The announcement of the winners and the award presentation will be at the IACP Annual Conference in San Diego, CA on October 2, 2012.

We are accepting nominations from now until June 1, 2012.  To learn more and download an award application form, please click here.

You don’t have to save a life to be a hero!

Thomson Reuters proudly sponsors the Hero Award, which will allow CLEAR, Westlaw PeopleMap, and Batch Services customers to submit their stories on how they, or someone they know, have been successful using our Risk, Fraud and Investigation solutions to:

• solve a crime

• change a life

• right a wrong

• uncover fraud

• perform another heroic act

Stories are being accepted now through August 15, 2011 to be eligible to receive a $10,000 charitable donation.  Three separate recipients in the government, corporate and law firm markets will each be awarded a $10,000 charitable donation.

To learn more, please click here. 

To view an article on the hero award on the Thomson Reuters website, please click here.

The deadline is fast approaching so now is the time to act.  Good luck!

By Cynthia Hetherington, Hetherington Group

Cynthia Hetherington has more than 15 years of experience in research, investigations and corporate intelligence. She is a consultant for Thomson Reuters and the founder of Hetherington Group, a consulting, publishing and training firm focusing on intelligence, security and investigations.  Visit Cynthia on Twitter.
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Continued from Part 1.

Adjusting privacy settings
To adjust the privacy settings for your Facebook account, log into your profile, go to the “Account” tab in the top right corner, and select “Privacy Settings.” Under “Connecting on Facebook,” choose “View Settings.”  This section explains how people who are not your Facebook friends are currently viewing your information.  There are several areas to control your settings:  search for you on Facebook, send you friend requests, send you messages, see your friend list, see your education and work, see your current city and hometown, and see your likes, activities, and other connections.  The first three categories have three choices of who can view that information:  friends only, friends of friends, or everyone.  The remaining sections have the same settings available in addition to offering the opportunity to customize the setting.  By choosing the customize function, you are able to specify to whom the content is visible.  The options are:  friends only, friends of friends, “only me,” or specific people (already on your list of friends).  It is also possible to hide the content from certain people who are already included on your list of friends as well.  Afterward, you can select “Preview My Profile” to view how your profile appears to those who are not your Facebook friends.  After completing the settings in that area, select “Back to Privacy.”

Sharing on Facebook
In the next section, “Sharing on Facebook,” the features which can be edited are:  your status, photos and posts, bio and favorite quotations, family and relationships, photos and videos you’re tagged in, religious and political views, birthday, permission to comment on your posts, places you check in to, and contact information.  The options for who can view these areas are:  everyone, friends of friends, friends only, recommended, or custom.  Facebook’s recommended setting is to have your status, photos, posts, bio, favorite quotations, family, and relationships set to be viewed by everyone.  Facebook’s recommendation for photos and videos you’re tagged in, religious and political views, and birthday is that they should be available to friends of friends in addition to the previous information.  Permission to comment on your posts, places you check in to, and contact information is recommended by Facebook to be viewed by friends only.  There is also an option to let friends of people tagged in photos and posts see them.  After you make your selections, choose “Apply These Settings.”

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By Cynthia Hetherington, Hetherington Group

Cynthia Hetherington has more than 15 years of experience in research, investigations and corporate intelligence. She is a consultant for Thomson Reuters and the founder of Hetherington Group, a consulting, publishing and training firm focusing on intelligence, security and investigations.  Visit Cynthia on Twitter.
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You are well aware of the benefits of using Facebook as an investigative tool, but are you certain that you are securing your personal Facebook page with the maximum privacy settings?  Facebook makes it challenging to keep up with your privacy controls.  The privacy policies change often and there is extensive information published regarding the settings.  Reading through and interpreting all of the information is time-consuming and many users simply ignore it.  You must ensure you are protecting yourself and your exposure by regularly reviewing your Facebook privacy settings.

Some may choose to not have a Facebook account for fear of having privacy comprised; however, you cannot conduct thorough investigations without searching one of the most popular social networks on the Web today.  In order to search Facebook, you must have an account.  Also, in order to see what your family and friends and saying about you in Facebook, you must have an account.

Facebook privacy settings
Keeping up with Facebook’s ever-changing privacy settings can be a daunting task.  Here is a step-by-step guide for controlling your Facebook privacy settings based on the information you, personally, feel comfortable sharing.  The settings you choose will control which people and applications (or “apps”) can view your Facebook content.  You can choose to share with everyone, just friends, friends of friends, or you can specifically customize which people and apps can see your information.  The policy of Facebook is to have your name, profile picture, gender, networks, and username available to everyone because they feel this information is essential to helping users to connect with their friends and family.

Basic Facebook terms
Many settings have the option of “friends only.”  For example, when you select “friends only,” you are agreeing that only those on your Facebook list of friends can view that particular content.  As for “friends of friends,” according to Facebook, these individuals “are people who are friends with your Facebook friends.  This privacy setting makes it easier to share things with relevant people in your community without having to make them available to everyone on the Internet.  For example: Maggie, Jill and Grace go on a skiing trip, and Grace posts pictures from the trip.  Maggie wants to share the album with her mom, but Grace isn’t Facebook friends with Maggie’s mom.  If Grace chooses to make the album available to ‘Friends of Friends,’ Maggie can still share it with her mom on Facebook.”  There is also the option of “only me” for many settings.  This means you would be the only person who can view that particular content.

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Thomson Reuters proudly sponsors the Hero Award, which will allow CLEAR, Westlaw PeopleMap, and Batch Services customers to submit their stories on how they, or someone they know, have been successful using our Risk, Fraud and Investigation solutions to:

• solve a crime

• change a life

• right a wrong

• uncover fraud

• perform another heroic act

Stories are being accepted now through August 15, 2011 to be eligible to receive a $10,000 charitable donation.  Three separate recipients in the government, corporate and law firm markets will each be awarded a $10,000 charitable donation.

To learn more, please click here. 

To view an article on the hero award on the Thomson Reuters website, please click here.

By Shelly Bouchard, Thomson Reuters

Feel good stories and successes in the news today are simply not an everyday occurrence, so it was refreshing to wake to good news last week.  A test of wills won, years of hard work and commitment rewarded, all with the arrest of James “Whitey” Bulger – long time fugitive from South Boston. 

Growing up in Massachusetts we all knew who Whitey was.  And once declared a fugitive and heading the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted list – he became nothing short of a legend in his own time.  Books were written, Hollywood made movies, and his once powerful family was closely watched.  But his legacy of evading arrest for over 16 years finally came to a screeching halt in the early hours of June 22 – when he was arrested at his apartment home in Santa Monica, CA. 

For years there was talk of whether Bulger was in the US or abroad, or whether he was even still alive for that matter.  We now know that he was not only alive but thriving, and using one of the oldest and most successful tricks in the book:  hiding in plain sight.  Of course, he had the forethought to hide millions in cash and multiple untraceable identities in places across the world where he could easily retrieve them as needed, which undoubtedly made his life on the run much easier. 

However, in spite of all the time that has passed and the numerous challenges that were faced, Law Enforcement never gave up on finding Bulger.  The FBI had a task force formed whose sole mission was to find him…and working over the years with countless state, local, federal and international agencies they kept up their pursuit.  And finally last week, less than 24 hours after receiving what would be the ultimate lead in the case, Bulger and his companion Catherine were arrested without incident at home. 

It is cases like this that make us all at Thomson Reuters so proud to be a part of the Law Enforcement community, and to support our agencies and officers who every day make a difference in our lives.  It is comforting to know that even when the odds may be against them, they keep looking, keep working, seeking justice and making our lives a little safer.  So today, we would like to congratulate the FBI on their incredible and hard earned success in this case.  Aided by a vast network of organizations including the US Marshals, US Attorneys, Boston PD, Massachusetts State Police and many more, they proved that patience pays, and crime doesn’t.  So congratulations and a heartfelt thank you – for all they do.

By Cynthia Hetherington, Hetherington Group

Cynthia Hetherington has more than 15 years of experience in research, investigations and corporate intelligence. She is a consultant for Thomson Reuters and the founder of Hetherington Group, a consulting, publishing and training firm focusing on intelligence, security and investigations.  Visit Cynthia on Twitter.
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Using the auction Web sites for buying and selling goods can be a fun and cost effective way to get rid of your junk, or buy someone else’s.  However these services can also be very helpful for online investigators.

For example, If you are trying to locate the person behind a pseudo anonymous posting on a blog, or in a forum, use eBay.  Chances are the suspect has used the same user handle, or nickname, in innocuous places like eBay, never considering for a minute that you would search for them there.

You will be able to see, at the least where they ship from, which can seriously narrow down your search by geography.  Also, it is possible to learn much about their behavior, in viewing what they purchase or sell online.  Finally, they might have an old email address in their profile, which was the original login for eBay when it started in 1995.

Using eBay

The online auction site eBay.com has been on the Web for more than a decade and is the owner of its merchant system Paypal.com. Very lengthy, detailed logs are maintained for each transaction in the event that records and identities need to be subpoenaed. For the casual surfer, learning how to dissect these tools for information can make your case.

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By Keely Byron, Thomson Reuters

Everyone is using social media, including non-law-abiding citizens of the world, and they’re not covering up their tracks. Through sites like Facebook and YouTube, lawbreakers ranging from underage drinkers to leaders of drug cartels invite authorities to monitor exactly what it is they’re doing.

This January, my old high school voted on a new drug and alcohol policy. The proposed policy pertained only to students participating in extracurricular activities, requiring them to immediately leave any site, on-campus or off, where drugs and/or alcohol are present. The proposed policy also specified that though pictures from Facebook and other social media sites could not be used as primary proof, they could be used as supplemental evidence in evaluating a violation.

Throughout the country, students are participating in underage drinking and drug use, as has undoubtedly been going on for decades. But in this day and age, with the assistance of social media, students are posting pictures and videos of themselves knowingly and willingly participating in illegal acts, and are now getting caught.

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Thomson Reuters proudly sponsors the Hero Award, which will allow CLEAR, Westlaw PeopleMap, and Batch Services customers to submit their stories on how they, or someone they know, have been successful using our Risk, Fraud and Investigation solutions to:

• solve a crime

• change a life

• right a wrong

• uncover fraud

• perform another heroic act

Stories are being accepted now through August 15, 2011 to be eligible to receive a $10,000 charitable donation.  Three separate recipients in the government, corporate and law firm markets will each be awarded a $10,000 charitable donation.

To learn more, please click here.