ONLINE INVESTIGATIONS: Instagram

Instagram is the fastest growing social media platform in the United States. One in five adults and more than half of high school seniors have an account. Do you have the tools and techniques to investigate cases involving Instagram?

With the growing popularity of Instagram, particularly among young people, comes the inevitable flood of drug dealers, gang members, human traffickers, and cyberbullies.  The key to law enforcement investigations involving Instagram is knowing what information the company collects and stores, how to get it, and what to do with it once you have it.

ONLINE INVESTIGATIONS: Instagram is designed for narcotics detectives, gang officers, intelligence analysts, and school resource officers. This one of a kind guide provides law enforcement officers with all of the tools needed to successfully investigate criminal activity on Instagram. Investigative techniques are covered step-by-step including:

• Locating narcotics, gang activity, weapons, and other criminal activity
• Searching by username, keywords, and location
• Properly identifying accounts
• Evidence preservation techniques
• Free tools for automated account monitoring and downloading every picture and video from an account
• Legal process using search warrants, court orders, subpoenas, and exigent circumstances
• INCLUDES: Core Skills for Evidence Preservation, Maintaining the Integrity of Digital Evidence, Investigating Phone Numbers, Tracing Internet Protocol (IP) Addresses, and Viewing EXIF/metadata
• Also included is a downloadable search warrant template language for Instagram accounts.

“I had no idea there was so much dope on Instagram.  Now I’m starting all kinds of proactive investigations.  If you work any kind of drug cases you need this book.” -Narcotics Task Force Officer, Oakland

“With the help of the techniques in this book I was able to search for Instagram posts at our facility and located a validated security threat group member who was communicating using the application.  We were able to locate the inmate’s phone and recovered a treasure trove of information.”  -Security Threat Group Investigator, California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation

“This is one of the best books in the Online Investigations series. The automated Instagram monitoring is genius.  It not only saves me a ton of time but also lets me see a suspect’s Instagram activity in real time without ‘following’ them with an undercover account.  I can get a text message every time he posts something.” -Gang Detective, San Jose

Don't let another criminal get away.  Get ONLINE INVESTIGATIONS: Instagram today.

CI Publishing derives material from active-duty law enforcement officers and instructors with years of experience in the subject matter. The authors of ONLINE INVESTIGATIONS: Instagram chose to remain anonymous as they are prevented from disclosing their identities for operational security reasons and due to departmental policies and procedures regarding attribution and endorsements.