Social Media and Law Enforcement Practice in Poland
Insights into Practice Outside Anglophone Countries
Routledge Studies in Crime, Culture and Media Series

This book explores the role of social media in the daily practice of Polish criminal justice and how social media is, in turn, reshaping this practice. Based on empirical research, it confronts common beliefs about how police officers, prosecutors, and judges use social media in their work. Readers will find answers to questions such as Which social media platforms are popular among law enforcement officers in Poland? How do the police use social media to investigate and prosecute crimes? What are the strategies for using social media to communicate with the community? What strategies are most successful?

The findings in this book challenge some popular beliefs and theories about social media in criminal justice. As the first book to explore the use of social media in criminal justice outside of English-speaking countries, this collection of academic research will be of interest to academics focusing on criminology, criminal justice, and policing, and will also be useful to police leaders and officers, police social media administrators, prosecutors, and judges who may be inspired by the research to implement new successful and more effective practices.

1. Social Media and Criminal Justice Practice Outside the Anglophone Countries

Paweł Waszkiewicz

2. The Online Frontier: Social Media Use by Law Enforcement Personnel in Poland

Stanisław Rabczuk

3. Paw Patrol? How Polish police are using animal images and funny content on social media.

Magdalena Tomaszewska-Michalak

4. We Are Still Here – Police Activity on Social Media during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Błażej Stromczyński

5. Social Media Evidence in Criminal Proceedings

Paweł Waszkiewicz, Krzysztof Worek

6. Detecting Online Offenders: A Case Study of Social Media Hate Speech Investigations

Piotr Lewulis

7. Social media and criminal justice, a complicated relationship: Conclusions

Paweł Waszkiewicz

Paweł Waszkiewicz is a University Professor at the Department of Criminalistics at the Faculty of Law and Administration of the University of Warsaw. He has been a lecturer and visiting professor at the University of Ottawa, Rutgers University, University College London, Universidad de Alicante, Universidad de Malaga, and Teesside University, among others. He has led and co-led research on crime prevention, video surveillance, biometrics, operational and detection work, homicide investigation, surveillance methods, out-of-court conflict resolution funded by Polish (Ministry of Science and Higher Education, National Science Center, University of Warsaw) and foreign (European Commission, Södertörn University, Foundation for Baltic and East European Studies) grants.

Paweł Waszkiewicz is the author and co-author of dozens of scientific publications and more than a hundred conference presentations. He is an advocate of evidence-based activities, transparency and open access policies. Most of his publications are freely available on his researchgate.net and academia.edu profiles.

Self-appointed president of the Warsaw fan club of the TV series The Wire. In love with surfing without reciprocation.