Revealed: LAPD used ‘strategic communications’ firm to track ‘defund the police’ online

Internal documents show a Polish firm with no law enforcement experience helped LAPD collect tens of thousands of tweets related to Black Lives Matter and racial justice protests

The Los Angeles police department worked with a Polish firm that specializes in strategic communications" to monitor social media and collect millions of tweets last year, including thousands related to Black Lives Matter and defund the police", according to records reviewed by the Guardian.

Internal LAPD documents, obtained by the Brennan Center for Justice through public records requests, reveal that the department conducted a one-month trial of social media monitoring software from Edge NPD, a company that typically worked in advertising and marketing, had no prior experience contracting with law enforcement and was based thousands of miles away in Warsaw, Poland.