The effective use of social media in crime detection and prevention: The promotion of public trust in the U.A.E police- the case of the Abu Dhabi police

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Author
Al Baloushi, Awad
Date
2019Type
Thesis
Publisher
Cardiff Metropolitan University
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
The social media provided police agencies with many worth capabilities to promote
their crime control activities, which grounded in gaining the trust of the citizens. The
literature review unearthed a lack of empirical studies on examining the potential role
of Facebook (FB) users’ trust in facilitating crime information sharing with the police
through various social media platforms. This study endeavoured to replenish this
knowledge gap by identifying the causes and factors that could build Facebook users’
trust in participating in the Abu Dhabi Police FB regarding crime information sharing.
The study developed a conceptual model based on the e-servicescapes concept of Harris
and Goode (2010) and Harris and Ezeh (2008), which considered trust, communication
efficiency, and customer’s purchase intention as crucial factors for successful online
service, while Hohl’s work (2011) tested trust in police from a citizen perspective. The
study employed FB, due to its global popularity, to investigate i) possible integration of
FB as a tool in crime detection based on gained public trust; and ii) social acceptance
towards disclosure of crime news on the ADP’s FB. The developed model answered
these research questions i) How did the ADP employ FB in police-community
communication to gain the desired public trust?, and ii) Did the gained public trust play
a role in driving the users’ interest in sharing information regarding the detection of
non-serious crimes? The mixed-method addressed these questions. The survey
participants (n=300) retrieved from the ADP’s database and conducted interviews with
FB experts (n=20). The generated findings revealed that graphic design, functionality,
content quality, and secure access to the ADP’s FB page were crucial in building users’
trust to support participation intention regarding non-serious crime issues. The findings
illustrated demographic features of the survey participants, where the males between
40-49 years represented 77.51% of the men (n=169), whereas females between 30-39
years represented 76.93% of women (n=39) whose trust motivated them to participate
regularly in the ADP’s FB. The study concluded that the gained trust of FB users
enhanced reliable information sharing dedicated to non-serious crime detection. This
study contributed to developing a police FB model to explain how the ADP officers
considered the impact of public trust on deploying FB in their policing routines
regarding non-serious crime detection.
Keywords: Public trust; Police social media; Facebook; Non-serious crimes; Crime
information sharing; Participation intention; Socio-cultural norms; the UAE.
Description
PhD Thesis- School of Management
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