In April, the Waterloo City Council approved the purchase of a new social media monitoring software intended to alert law enforcement to any threats made against local schools or community events.

The Waterloo Police Department has been using this software since May 1, and the primary officer overseeing it offered some insight into how it works.

Sean Wiegand has served as the WPD’s school resource officer the past three years. For the last two years, he’s been looking into resources to keep the department abreast of any threats made against Waterloo schools.

While it took several months for him to conduct research and comparisons, Wiegand ultimately recommended the department begin using Babel X, software from analytic company Babel Street.

The company and its services were the subject of a Vice article in April 2017 which described how Babel Street had appeared to be stepping in to replace the niche formerly occupied by Geofeedia when Twitter, Facebook and Instagram barred the latter company from accessing data after an American Civil Liberties Union report showed police had used the software for protest tracking.

The Vice article went on to describe how organizations like the Seattle Police Department, FBI and some private groups – namely a group of sports stadiums and entertainment venues – had looked into or adopted Babel X.

A somewhat more recent article from The Washington Post in April 2022 similarly described how the FBI has continued to pursue Babel X and its social media tracking capabilities.

Unlike a national agency, the WPD has a much narrower purview. Wiegand described how the software currently works for them.

As he described, Babel X essentially alerts the department to any public social media posts which contain a threat made against local schools.

While Wiegand didn’t get into too many specifics so as to avoid giving away what specific words the software looks for, he said it’s constantly scanning posts for certain keywords.

“Right now, I have searches set out there, little portals put out there, that filter content that are looking for threats toward our schools,” Wiegand said. “It’s looking for key terms, like our school names used with a threat term.”

The ultimate goal of adopting the software, as Wiegand described, is to try and ensure local law enforcement are alerted to any and all threats before – or even while – they happen.

He explained that a significant percentage of school-aged or young adult individuals who attack schools or public areas post about doing so during or before the act.

While being aware of such a threat prior to an attack is tremendously useful, Wiegand noted that alerts during an attack can also be helpful when it comes to response or following investigations.

“What we’re trying to capture is the public data that’s posted about those types of violent crimes before they happen or, at least, capture some of the data that may lead us to further investigation to prevent these kinds of acts from happening,” Wiegand said.

Wiegand also explained that in his research and exploration of the software’s marketing, he learned it is primarily large police departments or those in cities with large college or tourist populations which invest in the software.

He said Waterloo appears to be the only department in the area to have adopted it, with the city paying for the $16,000 one-year purchase.

He stressed Babel X is only looking at public information specifically. 

Comparable to an individual combing through a Facebook page they come across – albeit on a vastly greater scale than any one person – the software cannot access messages or private pages.

“Any private messages, like messages sent through the Facebook messaging app, any private messages sent between one person to another or one person to a group of people, that is still private,” Wiegand said. “That is not something we can access through this. That is not something we can access on our own without getting a search warrant. That is not what this is used for.”

Wiegand also said the software doesn’t dictate whether or not any action is taken by the department. Should a post be flagged, the WPD is simply alerted. The post is then up to Wiegand and colleagues to assess in terms of an actual potential for a threat.

“Just because Babel X gives me an email back saying ‘Hey, the criteria you wanted to be notified of, we found it online. Here it is,’ that doesn’t mean that we’re just gonna go arrest that person,” Wiegand said. “We have to look into that. That still has to be confirmed.”

As previously described, the primary application for Babel X locally is as a safeguard for schools, though Wiegand said the software is also being used to alert the department to any threats made against Waterloo festivals or other large community events.

The software could also offer alerts for schools or events outside Waterloo, as the program specifically looks at the content of public posts rather than any geographic data or location information in a profile, according to Wiegand.

Waterloo Superintendent of Schools Brian Charron offered his thoughts on the software implementation, saying he’s thankful that the city is making the investment.

“There’s no one thing that’s going to give us 100 percent protection,” Charron said, “but any time that we can add another layer of safety for our schools and community, that’s a positive thing.”