A public information request by the Brennan Center for Justice reveals that Los Angeles Police Department officers have been instructed to collect the social media information of every civilian they interview. According to the Brennan Center, a nonpartisan law and policy institute, the department directs its officers to engage in “extensive surveillance of social media without internal monitoring of the nature or effectiveness of the searches.”
When an LAPD officer questions a civilian—even those who aren’t accused of a crime—they’re instructed to fill out a “field interview” card with basic biographical info like name, sex, and date of birth. In recent years, the cards were updated with a field where officers record the interview subject’s Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter handles, as The Guardian was first to report. An internal memo handed over to the Brennan Center shows that the department’s police chief, Michel Moore, told officers that it was critical to collect the data, which is intended for use in “investigations, arrests, and prosecutions,” and warned that supervisors would review the cards to ensure that they were being filled out completely.
The records also show that the department budgeted $73,000 to purchase new social media surveillance software through a company called Media Sonar, which would supposedly help the department “address a potential threat or incident before its occurrence,” The Guardian reports.
The LAPD’s expansion of social media...
Read Full Story: https://www.lamag.com/citythinkblog/lapd-officers-instructed-to-ask-civilians-for-social-media/
Your content is great. However, if any of the content contained herein violates any rights of yours, including those of copyright, please contact us immediately by e-mail at media[@]kissrpr.com.