Solicitation of Hacking Team software to LA County Sheriff's Department

To Whom It May Concern:

Pursuant to the California's Sunshine Amendment (Cal. Const. Art. I, § 3(b)), I hereby request the following records:

All correspondence, contracts and/or reports pertaining to the sale, solicitation, and/or demonstration of software products offered by Hacking Team, S.r.l. to the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department.

To assist in your search, I would recommend you start by looking at the following dates:

September 6, 2013

December 3, 2012

If no relevant records are found for those dates, I would respectfully request a search of all records from January 1, 2012 to the present date. Hacking Team is a Milan-based company with offices in the United States, located at 1997 Annapolis Exchange Parkway, Suite 300, Annapolis, MD 21401.

I also request that, if appropriate, fees be waived as I believe this request is in the public interest. The requested documents will be made available to the general public free of charge as part of the public information service at MuckRock.com. I am a published member of the news media, and this request is being made as part of the news gathering process and not for commercial usage.

In the event that fees cannot be waived, please inform me of the total charges in advance of fulfilling my request. I would prefer the request filled electronically, by e-mail attachment if available or CD-ROM if not.

Thank you in advance for your anticipated cooperation in this matter. I look forward to receiving your response to this request within 10 calendar days, as the statute requires.

Sincerely,

Joshua Kopstein

Thanks for your quick response. The software in question is a police surveillance application called "Remote Control System," also known as "Galileo," which is used for the interception of communications from criminal suspects' computers and cellphones. To clarify, Hacking Team is a foreign vendor with offices in the United States, and I am seeking documents and communications pertaining to the solicitation, sale, or demonstration of their products.

For more background information, please see the following report: https://citizenlab.org/2014/06/backdoor-hacking-teams-tradecraft-android-implant/

Thank you,

Joshua Kopstein