Discussion Question for PSAD 495

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Running head: PUBLIC SAFETY ADMINISTRATORS

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PUBLIC SAFETY ADMINISTRATORS

Public Safety Administrators

Michael Petras

University of Maryland University College

Public safety administration entails the coordination of the resources that would be used in the safety and security of the community. Mainly, public safety administrators include the police officers, the emergency teams, fire departments, and even medical service providers. The main aim or role of the public safety administrators is to ensure that the general public is protected from various threats that may arise as they interact within the environment. However, recently, there have been some challenges that have been an issue in the provision of public safety administrations. The effect of social media use in the public has been a challenge to the public safety administration because of the technicality involved in the use of the same. Therefore, there is a need to understand social media use as a challenge to the public safety administration.

In the use of social media, it is expected that the lawmakers, litigators and even the community members shape the federal, state and local law and departmental policy regarding what information the public safety administrators access when trying to protect individuals from areas such as cybercrime and bullying (Beckett, 2018). The use of social media puts so many individuals at a lot of risks that need protection from public safety administrators. It is as a result of this need to protect the public that laws have been put into place laws on the type of data and transparency required to protect the public. Some of these laws have been a challenge to the security providers and therefore become an issue that needs to be addressed.

The issue of transparency and access to public data from the public using social media came into existence when there was a rise in modern technology. The arrival of the new technology that could enable people to interact online is the one that resulted to lawmakers coming up with policies that would require the public safety administrators become more transparent on the data they access and the extent of the data they access from the public (Namkoong et al., 2017). The policymakers argued that the public safety administrators in their line of duty were accessing private data, which is illegal. They then came up with laws prohibiting the same, and that made it a challenge to protect the public who are on social media platforms.

The history of the issue is dated from the digital age, whereby the users of social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and even Instagram started sharing the geographic location and other data in public. However, watchdog or public safety administrators could use this data to come up with ways to protect the public and ensure public safety. However, some of the ways that the data was being used entailed some discriminatory surveillance and even tended to violate privacy rights. Additionally, public safety administrators such as the police had adopted the dash cams and body cameras to collect data that were sometimes infringing personal rights (Gintova, 2018). It was upon this realization that society groups went ahead and called for laws to guide the public safety administrators on the type of data they should collect and stop invading the personal privacy. However, in the process of implementing the laws, then it was seemed a difficult task in providing protection to the public and ensuring their safety on social media without having to access this data.

To briefly state, the issue of public safety administration should not be regulated based on privacy matters. The reason being, the general aim of the public safety administrators, is not to punish the public but to ensure their safety. Even if someone is invading their privacy, they are doing that on the basis that they want to help that someone is protected from any harm that may arise from the use of social media. Therefore, I do believe that the issue should be analyzed on the overall benefit received from the infringement of privacy and not from the fear that some of the people's privacy being infringed. The same way the fire department would break into a person's house to contain fire without any consent from the owner. I believe it should be the same when it comes to social media that one can access a threatened person's social media platforms to protect them from possible cyber crimes, bullying, and any other type of crime that may arise without consulting the owner. The damage from the threat is more than the cost of infringement on personal rights.

Therefore, the issue of infringement of privacy rights in the context of social media should be an issue of the past that should not inhibit public safety administrators from conducting their business of protecting the public. The administrators do not protect the public from benefiting themselves or from humiliating someone, but they do it for the benefit of the people and individuals affected. Therefore, there is a need to revisit the legislation and come up with laws that are enabling the public safety administrators to have the ability to administer their duties without the fear of being subjected to legal litigation of invading someone's privacy rights.

References

Beckett, J. (2018). Five great issues in public law and public administration. Handbook of Public Administration, 697-719. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315093215-18

Gintova, M. (2018). Use of social media in Canadian public administration: Opportunities and barriers. Canadian Public Administration, 62(1), 7-26. https://doi.org/10.1111/capa.12298

Namkoong, K., Cho, K., & Kim, S. (2017). undefined. Taylor & Francis.