Frisco residents may want to check their social media settings as the Frisco Police Department is seeking a $35,000 grant to purchase software and related computer equipment in order to monitor citizens’ public social media posts for “criminal activity” and gather intelligence.

Last Tuesday the grant application was approved to be submitted by the Frisco City Council despite strong reservations from residents. The main concern was privacy and the possible trampling of rights.

According to Police Chief John Bruce the information is currently available on social media sites and this grant will allow them to gather it more efficiently.

Frisco resident Brett Sanders spoke against the grant saying, “I do not want the police trolling social media to go find underage drinking parties. That’s absurd. We should not be paying police to do this.”

Chief Bruce said the conversations are happening in public so the concern is unwarranted.

The department has made a trial run with a possible software during last year’s Jimmy Buffett concert. Keywords like underage drinking, fights and marijuana were searched.

Chief Bruce made note the software was especially effective in tracking fights before the police were actually called.

The grant shows that the software will be used primarily for sporting events, public health scares, and natural disasters.

North Central Texas Council of Governments and the Homeland Security Urban Areas Security Initiative are in charge of issuing the grant.

Even though residents like Tom Fabry found the idea of “randomly monitoring the electronic communications of our citizens” offensive the City Council Council unanimously approved the grant.

Update: Frisco resident Brett Sanders uploaded a video of Chief Bruce’s testimony.