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![handle is hein.brennan/bclaprrq0001 and id is 1 raw text is: BRENNAN
CENTER
FOR JUSTICE
January 30, 2020
Re: Freedom of Information Law Request
Dear Sir or Madam:
This is a request under the California Public Records Act (CPRA), Cal. Gov't Code §§
6250-6270, on behalf of the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law (Brennan
Center).
The Brennan Center seeks information relating to the Los Angeles Police Department's
use of social media to collect information about individuals, groups, and activities,
described below as social media monitoring.
Background
In general, social media monitoring is a term describing the use of social media platforms
like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram to gather information for purposes including, but
not limited to, identifying potential threats, reviewing breaking news, collecting
individuals' information, conducting criminal investigations and intelligence, and gauging
public sentiment.
Social media monitoring can be conducted through individual, direct use of social media
platforms and their search functions (including via the use of a social media account, either
public or undercover), or through third-party monitoring tools that use keywords,
geographic locations, and data mining to identify trends and networks of association, such
as Geofeedia or Dunami.
The Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) has engaged in social media monitoring
since at least December 2014, at which time it employed around 40 people to monitor
social media manually. This included routinely crawl[ing] through social media to
monitor the profiles of persons of interest, including suspected gang members.2 During that
1Edwin Chan & Alex Doibuzinskis, U.S. Police Struggle to Uncover Threats on Social Media, REUTERS (Dec. 26,
2014), hop -
media-idUSKBNOK40MD20141226.
2 Id.
Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law
1140 Connecticut Ave., NW, Suite 1150 Washington, DC 20036](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.brennan/bclaprrq0001&div=1&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)