State of Surveillance: California Cops and Social Media Monitoring - Ammoland.com

U.S.A. -(AmmoLand.com)- Last year, the Brennan Center for Justice requested under California’s freedom of information law, that the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) provide records relating to the Department’s “social media monitoring” activities. The request was based on the lack of public “information about the capabilities and limitations of the LAPD’s social media monitoring operations” and its use, including use beyond actual criminal investigations. The request letter noted that as of 2014, the LAPD had approximately 40 employees whose job it was to analyze social media, monitor individuals and groups, and collect online information about them and their activities.

What emerges from a review of the disclosed documents is a practice of police data-gathering from individuals who have not been arrested, cited or charged, to enhance law enforcement surveillance capability using social media.

In 2015, the LAPD’s Chief of Police authorized amendments to a “Field Interview” (FI) report form that would include gathering, besides specific personal information (name, birth date, address, vehicle information, and SSN), the details of the individual’s email and social media accounts. A later memo in 2020 reminds officers of the “expectation” that all information on the FI report be “recorded thoroughly and accurately” and instructs supervisors to review FIs for “completeness.”

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