TL;DR: Police departments across the United States use sophisticated OSINT tools to monitor social media, track suspects, and, critics argue, surveil activists exercising their First Amendment rights. The FBI purchased 5,000 licenses for Babel Street's social media monitoring tool. Voyager Labs was sued by Meta for creating 55,000 fake accounts to scrape user data. Documents show police tracking Black Lives Matter protests, monitoring mentions of "Muslim Lives Matter," and arresting people for social media posts that turned out to be innocent. Here's how law enforcement uses OSINT, the tools they deploy, and why civil liberties groups are alarmed.
What Police Can Do with OSINT
Open Source Intelligence (OSINT) for law enforcement means collecting and analyzing publicly available information to support investigations. Unlike covert surveillance or wiretapping, OSINT relies on data that anyone can legally access, social media posts, public records, forums, and websites.
Law enforcement uses OSINT for:
- Criminal investigations: Tracking suspects, identifying associates, gathering evidence
- Real-time monitoring: Watching protests, events, and developing situations
- Threat detection: Monitoring for mass shooting warnings, bomb threats, terrorism
- Network mapping: Understanding gang structures and criminal organizations
- Missing persons: Finding people through their digital footprints
- Background checks: Vetting suspects, witnesses, and informants
The technology has advanced dramatically. What once required manual review of individual profiles is now automated. AI-powered tools can monitor millions of posts, flag keywords, identify patterns, and build relationship maps in real time.
The Tools Police Use
Babel Street
Babel Street is one of the most widely used law enforcement OSINT platforms. In 2022, the FBI purchased 5,000 licenses for Babel X, the company's social media analytics tool.
Capabilities:
- Search across thousands of sources including social media, public records, and dark web
- Monitor in over 200 languages with automatic translation
- Search by location using geofencing
- Mask investigator IP addresses and identities
- Emulate mobile devices and bypass geo-restrictions
- Real-time alerts for keywords and threats
Use cases: The FBI stated they use Babel X to "search publicly available information pertinent to predicated investigations in order to identify and respond to threats of violence, acts of terrorism, and potential federal violations."
Before the 2023 Formula 1 Grand Prix in Las Vegas, security teams used Babel Street to identify individuals planning to disrupt the event by uncovering patterns and connections among Las Vegas-based groups.
Voyager Labs
Voyager Labs provides AI-powered investigation tools that claim to predict criminal behavior. Their platform analyzes social media data to generate leads.
The controversy: In 2023, Meta sued Voyager Labs for creating approximately 55,000 fake Facebook and Instagram accounts to scrape data from around 1.2 million user profiles. The lawsuit alleged Voyager sold access to this data to law enforcement agencies.
What Voyager offers:
- Social network analysis to map relationships
- Behavioral prediction using machine learning
- Cross-platform identity resolution
- Dark web monitoring
- Image and facial recognition
ShadowDragon
ShadowDragon's SocialNet platform automates social media searches across multiple platforms, building comprehensive profiles of individuals.
Capabilities:
- Searches 120+ social media and web platforms simultaneously
- Creates visual maps of social connections
- Tracks usernames across platforms
- Monitors for keywords and hashtags
- Generates reports for investigations
Media Sonar
Media Sonar focuses on threat detection, allowing agencies to monitor for specific risks in real time.
Features:
- Geofenced social media monitoring
- Sentiment analysis
- Threat keyword alerts
- Dark web intelligence
- Event monitoring
Other Tools in Use
| Tool | Primary Use |
|---|---|
| Palantir Gotham | Data integration and analysis for investigations |
| Cellebrite | Mobile device forensics and social media extraction |
| Maltego | Relationship mapping and link analysis |
| Geofeedia | Location-based social media monitoring |
| DigitalStakeout | Threat intelligence and brand monitoring |
How Police Investigations Work
Starting an Investigation
A typical OSINT investigation begins with a single identifier: a name, username, phone number, or email address. From there, investigators:
- Search for connected accounts: Find all social media profiles linked to the identifier
- Map the network: Identify friends, family, associates, and frequent contacts
- Analyze content: Review posts, photos, check-ins, and interactions
- Build a timeline: Reconstruct movements and activities
- Preserve evidence: Capture posts before they're deleted
Real-Time Monitoring
For ongoing threats or events, police use OSINT tools to:
- Monitor specific hashtags and keywords
- Set up geofenced alerts for specific locations
- Track posts from identified accounts
- Detect threats as they emerge
During protests and large gatherings, Twitter's advanced search and geolocation features allow investigators to filter posts by location and time, revealing who's present and what they're saying.
Creating Fake Accounts
Some investigators create undercover social media accounts to access private groups or befriend targets. This practice is legally questionable and increasingly controversial.
The Meta lawsuit against Voyager Labs highlighted that the company allegedly helped law enforcement create fake accounts systematically, violating platform terms of service and potentially users' privacy rights.
Documented Cases of Abuse
Surveillance of Black Lives Matter
After the police killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri in 2014, the Department of Homeland Security tracked Black Lives Matter protesters extensively.
What DHS monitored:
- Nonviolent protests and demonstrations
- Silent vigils
- A funk music parade
- A breast cancer awareness walk
DHS shared this intelligence with "fusion centers", facilities created for counterterrorism intelligence that have been criticized for infringing civil liberties while failing to contribute to national security.
Boston Police Keyword Monitoring
The Boston Police Department used social media monitoring tools to track mentions of:
- "Black Lives Matter"
- "Muslim Lives Matter"
- Other social justice-related terms
This surveillance targeted people based on political speech, not criminal activity.
False Gang Accusations
In 2017, Long Island authorities falsely accused a Honduran student of being an MS-13 gang member. The evidence? Facebook photos of himself with other Central American students dressed in their home countries' flag colors with area codes displayed.
Social media posts are commonly used to tag youth of color as gang members, a designation with severe legal consequences, based on thin or misinterpreted evidence.
The Wichita Arrest
In 2020, Wichita, Kansas police arrested a Black teenager on charges that his Snapchat post "incited a riot." In reality, his post warned people to stay away from protests in his hometown. He was arrested for trying to prevent violence.
DC Police Surveillance
Documents obtained by the Brennan Center revealed DC police extensively surveilled social media profiles and protest activity, tracking individuals based on their political activities rather than suspected criminal behavior.
The Legal Framework (or Lack Thereof)
What's Legal
Publicly available data, posts, comments, photos, geotags, is accessible without a warrant. Courts have generally held that people have no reasonable expectation of privacy in content they voluntarily share publicly.
What Requires Authorization
- Accessing private messages
- Using platform-provided data access tools
- Wiretapping or intercepting communications
- Some forms of systematic monitoring
CALEA (Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act) requires legal authorization for surveillance. But social media monitoring often falls into gray areas.
The Policy Vacuum
A Brennan Center study found that police department social media surveillance policies are dangerously inadequate:
- Most policies simply instruct officers to verify and document information, not limit collection
- Only 8 policies (out of those studied) require reasonable suspicion of criminal activity
- Few policies impose meaningful limitations on what can be retained
- Oversight and transparency are virtually nonexistent
This creates an environment where officers can conduct "fishing expeditions", surveilling people without any suspicion of wrongdoing.
The Chilling Effect
Surveillance doesn't just catch criminals. It discourages speech.
When people know they're being watched:
- They self-censor online activity
- They avoid associations that might trigger monitoring
- They skip protests and political gatherings
- They become reluctant to express opinions
This chilling effect is particularly pronounced in communities that are disproportionately targeted, activists, people of color, Muslim Americans, and political dissenters.
The First Amendment protects not just speech, but the right to assemble and associate. When police surveillance targets people exercising these rights, it undermines the foundation of democratic participation.
What You Can Do
Reduce Your Exposure
- Lock down privacy settings: Make profiles private where possible
- Disable location services: Turn off geotagging on posts
- Audit your public content: Review what's visible to strangers
- Use separate accounts: Compartmentalize political activity
- Be aware of who follows you: New followers might not be who they claim
Know Your Rights
- Public posts are generally fair game for police to view
- Police cannot compel you to unlock your phone without a warrant (in most jurisdictions)
- Private messages typically require judicial authorization to access
- You can file public records requests to learn what surveillance tools your local police use
Push for Reform
The Brennan Center for Justice recommends:
- Requiring reasonable suspicion for all social media monitoring
- Prohibiting surveillance based on protected speech or association
- Mandating transparency about surveillance tools and practices
- Independent oversight of monitoring programs
- Regular audits and public reporting
The Bottom Line
Police have powerful OSINT tools that can monitor your social media in real time, map your relationships, track your movements, and flag your speech for keywords of interest. The FBI alone has 5,000 Babel Street licenses.
These tools are marketed for catching criminals and preventing violence. But documented cases show they're also used to surveil activists, falsely accuse innocent people, and track political speech. The oversight is minimal. The policies are inadequate. The transparency is nearly nonexistent.
Understanding how these tools work is the first step. The same techniques used by police are available to anyone, which means you can audit your own exposure. But the real solution requires policy reform: clear limits on surveillance, transparency about tools and practices, and accountability when those limits are violated.
Your public posts are surveillance fodder. Act accordingly.
References
- Brennan Center, Police Social Media Surveillance
- FedScoop, FBI Purchases 5,000 Licenses for Babel X
- Brennan Center, Study Reveals Inadequacy of Police Social Media Surveillance Policies
- Brennan Center, Police Social Media Monitoring Chills Activism
- Police1, Social Media as an Investigative Tool
- Babel Street, Law Enforcement Intelligence Software
- ShadowDragon, Social Media Monitoring Tools for Law Enforcement
- Brennan Center, Documents Reveal How DC Police Surveil Social Media