STAY CONNECTED: Have the stories that matter most delivered every night to your email inbox. Subscribe to our daily local news wrap.
By Courtney Almeida

WATCH: Social Media and the Impact on the Criminal Justice System

Mar 1, 2019 | 4:30 AM

Crime Prevention’s latest Lunch & Learn focused on social media and its impact on the criminal justice system.

Martin Hurst is a Data Miner and Lower Mainland B.C. Police Officer who led the presentation. Hurst has been leading internet investigations for about 18 years. Now, he combines his law enforcement experience with his secondary passion for teaching. In addition to his police work, Hurst teaches data mining classes at the British Columbia Institute of Technology as well as at the Justice Institute of British Columbia.

The session aimed to educate locals on both the opportunities and pitfalls of social media.

“The key is not to run away from social media,” says Hurst. “There are certain directions that we need to understand when we use social media in order to prevent our personal information from being accessible to anybody online.”

During the presentation, Hurst presents a case study to attendees to show how easy it is for individuals to build a personal profile of you based on what they find through your online activity.

He discusses the importance of consistently updating your online privacy settings as applications are constantly making user changes.

“There’s a wide continuum of impact but the common denominator always centres on reputation management.”

WATCH as EverythingGP was in attendance for the presentation:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Je10Do21vfA

Crime Prevention hosts a free Lunch and Learn once a month. 

Lunch & Learn sessions run from 12 p.m. to about 1:30 p.m. and are designed to give citizens the ability to dissect important issues affecting the community. Scheduled conveniently on the lunch hour, event goers are encouraged to bring their own lunches and Crime Prevention provides refreshments.

“We try to focus our Lunch & Learn’s on one of the four root causes of crime in Grande Prarie which is: substance use and abuse, the breakdown of the family unit, lack of community connectedness and bullying,” says Cheryl George, Public Education and Event Coordinator for Crime Prevention.

The next Lunch & Learn session will take place on March 5, when a presentation on “Sexting” is presented by RCMP.

It’s a free event by space is limited. To register in advance or learn more about presentations visit Grande Prairie Crime Prevention on Facebook. 

by Courtney Almeida