Social media surveillance survey

Beryl Lipton filed this request with the Maypearl Police (Texas) of Maypearl, TX.
Submitted Feb. 6, 2018
Est. Completion None
Status
Fix Required

Communications

From: Beryl Lipton

Subject: Public Information Act Request: Social media surveillance survey

Email

To Whom It May Concern:

Pursuant to the Texas Public Information Act, I hereby request the following records:

• All records regarding the purchase of, acquisition of, installation of, subscription to, payment for, or agreements concerning software designed to access information from social media services

• Any and all contracts (as well as all associated amendments, exhibits, and materials), memorandums of understanding, and other equivalent agreements entered into by this agency with any software or equipment company providing services related to social media surveillance, including but not limited to:

• BrightPlanet
• Geofeedia
• Intrado Inc.
• LifeRaft
• Magnet Forensics
• Media Sonar
• Signal Corporation
• ZeroFOX

Responsive materials should include but not be limited to:

• the initial Invitation to Bid, Request for Proposal, or equivalent call for contractors
• the responsive materials provided by the winning bidder
• other bidder responses
• the current contract
• all exhibits
• all amendments
• all performance work statements
• all deliverables inventories
• all invoices related to the deliverance of software, services, or goods

Please also include:

• All records that contain any information about the functioning of software designed to access information from social media services that is used or has been used by this agency;
• All records regarding correspondence about or with a company that offers software designed to access information from social media services, including but not limited to all correspondence about or with the companies Brightplanet, Geofeedia, Intrado Inc, LifeRaft, Magnet Forensics, Media Sonar, Signal Corporation, and ZeroFOX;
• All policies related to the acquisition and use of social media by individual officers and representatives of this agency, including all records regarding the policies that govern access to or use of software designed to access information from social media services;
• All training materials and all records used to instruct members of your agency in the proper use of software designed to access information from social media services or of the information such software is capable of accessing;
• All records regarding the sharing with entities outside this agency of information obtained from or obtained by using software designed to access information from social media services;
• All policies related to the acquisition and use of social media surveillance software by individual officers and representatives of this agency;
• All records referencing social media profiles, comments, posts, messages, or events accessed or retained from social media services through use of software designed o access information from social media services.
• All materials related to the use of any other social media platform, including but not limited to Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Nextdoor, etc.

The requested documents will be made available to the general public, and this request is not being made for commercial purposes.

In the event that there are fees, I would be grateful if you would inform me of the total charges in advance of fulfilling my request. I would prefer the request filled electronically, by e-mail attachment if available or CD-ROM if not.

Thank you in advance for your anticipated cooperation in this matter. I look forward to receiving your response to this request within 10 business days, as the statute requires.

Sincerely,

Beryl Lipton

From: Maypearl Police (Texas)

Subject: Request for clarification pursuant to Tex Govt Code 552.222

Email

Good afternoon,

My name is Brad Hendricks and I am the Chief of Police for the Maypearl
Police Department. I have received your public information request on July
17, 2020. After an initial review of the request, I contacted your
organization to request clarification of the scope of the request pursuant
to Tex Govt. Code 552.222. I was advised that another employee would be in
contact next week to clarify the scope of the request made. This email is
to confirm the request for a discussion to clarify the scope of the request.

Among other issues to be clarified is the time frame to be searched.

Respectfully,

Brad Hendricks
Chief of Police
Maypearl Police Department

_____________________
Requested information

Pursuant to the Texas Public Information Act, I hereby request the
following records:

• All records regarding the purchase of, acquisition of, installation of,
subscription to, payment for, or agreements concerning software designed to
access information from social media services

• Any and all contracts (as well as all associated amendments, exhibits,
and materials), memorandums of understanding, and other equivalent
agreements entered into by this agency with any software or equipment
company providing services related to social media surveillance, including
but not limited to:

• BrightPlanet
• Geofeedia
• Intrado Inc.
• LifeRaft
• Magnet Forensics
• Media Sonar
• Signal Corporation
• ZeroFOX

Responsive materials should include but not be limited to:

• the initial Invitation to Bid, Request for Proposal, or equivalent call
for contractors
• the responsive materials provided by the winning bidder
• other bidder responses
• the current contract
• all exhibits
• all amendments
• all performance work statements
• all deliverables inventories
• all invoices related to the deliverance of software, services, or goods

Please also include:

• All records that contain any information about the functioning of
software designed to access information from social media services that is
used or has been used by this agency;
• All records regarding correspondence about or with a company that offers
software designed to access information from social media services,
including but not limited to all correspondence about or with the companies
Brightplanet, Geofeedia, Intrado Inc, LifeRaft, Magnet Forensics, Media
Sonar, Signal Corporation, and ZeroFOX;
• All policies related to the acquisition and use of social media by
individual officers and representatives of this agency, including all
records regarding the policies that govern access to or use of software
designed to access information from social media services;
• All training materials and all records used to instruct members of your
agency in the proper use of software designed to access information from
social media services or of the information such software is capable of
accessing;
• All records regarding the sharing with entities outside this agency of
information obtained from or obtained by using software designed to access
information from social media services;
• All policies related to the acquisition and use of social media
surveillance software by individual officers and representatives of this
agency;
• All records referencing social media profiles, comments, posts, messages,
or events accessed or retained from social media services through use of
software designed o access information from social media services.
• All materials related to the use of any other social media platform,
including but not limited to Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Nextdoor, etc.

The requested documents will be made available to the general public, and
this request is not being made for commercial purposes.

In the event that there are fees, I would be grateful if you would inform
me of the total charges in advance of fulfilling my request. I would prefer
the request filled electronically, by e-mail attachment if available or
CD-ROM if not.

From: Maypearl Police (Texas)

Subject: Re: Request for clarification pursuant to Tex Govt Code 552.222

Email

Good afternoon,

My name is Brad Hendricks and I am the Chief of Police for the Maypearl
Police Department. On 7/17/20 I received public information act request
from you regarding a social media surveillance survey. I responded to you
on the same date requesting clarification of scope of request pursuant to
Tex. Govt. Code 552.222. I requested an employee with knowledge of the
request contact me by phone to have a discussion, again pursuant to Tex.
Govt. Code 552.222 to clarify the scope of the request. The request, as
drafted, is extremely broad, in both the many types of records being
sought, the complete lack of a time frame to search for records, or
generally vague terms.

I have attached my Police Department's policy on Social Media, which is the
only record that clearly meets the requested topics. I cannot proceed
further to determine the cost of such a request without clarifying the
scope.

I want to provide a basic background to my department, as to explain the
need for clarification. I am the Chief of Police of a small department
with two full time officers, myself included. I began working for this
agency as the patrol sergeant in May 2019, and was promoted to Chief of
Police after the prior chief left in January 2020. Regarding the
surveillance software, my knowledge of such software is limited to being
aware such social media skimming software exists. None is currently
employed by Maypearl Police Department, and has not been employed since May
2019. Regarding your requests for contacts from vendors, I have not
sought out any of the software you described. I have not active bids or
request for bids, and frankly do not see any need in the
foreseeable future. I, however, cannot definitively state at this point
that no prior administration did not inquire or even trial such software
without a very extensive, and very costly, search of archived data. I can
state we are not utilizing such technology currently. Perhaps that
information meets your needs. If your request does in fact need to include
of search of historical records, I need to have a discussion with someone
who has the authority to define the scope of the research, and who would be
authorized to pay for such services.

Additionally, I can provide this information:

The city website (www.cityofmaypearl.org) apparently does state the
department has a twitter and facebook page. I took command of the police
department in March 2020 and as of this date I still do not have any
logins, and these accounts were set up and operated by prior
administrations. I have no person on staff who actively uses Facebook or
Twitter as part of official duties. I have no current method to access
these accounts, and establishing access is a low priority at this point due
to more pressing operational concerns.

The city also has Everbridge Nixle which texts citizens important community
updates, and it is an opt-in system. I do not directly manage this, as the
Ellis County Sheriff's Office gets the messages transmitted.

Pursuant to Tex. Govt. Code 552.222, I am awaiting your reply to my request
for clarification on July 17, 2020. If I have not had further contact with
you by the time described in the statute, I will consider this information
provided to be sufficiently responsive, and any further request withdrawn.

My cell phone number is 972-921-7506.

Respectfully,

Brad Hendricks
Chief of Police
Maypearl Police Department

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