Los Angeles, California - The LA Police Department wants the socials, but you don't need to give them that information.

According to documents supplied to the Brennan Center for Justice at the NYU School of Law, the LAPD is explicitly instructing its officers to request social media information when they detain people.

The documents also include a 2015 memo from former Chief of Police Charlie Beck, saying officers should "ask for a person's social media and e-mail account information" when they fill out a field interview report.

The Brennan Center reported on September 9 that the LAPD authorizes its officers to extensively monitor social media accounts.

The department collects information from Field Interview (FI) cards, including optional social media accounts.

According to the Brennan Center's research on the LAPD, the force uses the information from FI cards to "facilitate large-scale monitoring of both the individuals on whom they are collected and their friends, family, and associates – even people suspected of no crime at all."

However, there is little to no internal oversight, so the surveillance can't be tested to see if it is effective.

There is also no control on how long police officers look at content and accounts, beyond the instructions not to do anything illegal. Without effective internal oversight, there is no accountability for what the LAPD, through its officers, does when observing social media accounts.

Thanks to the right to remain silent, and because social media accounts are voluntary information, you are not required to give that information to the police.

Though people do not have to disclose their social media info, Ars Technica notes that some people want to comply to get out of an unpleasant or dangerous situation, which is understandable when considering the history of police violence for "failing to comply."