On December 11, we hosted our fourth annual U.S. Law Enforcement Summit, bringing together thousands of local, state, and federal law enforcement officials from across the country to learn more about how Snap supports law enforcement investigations and works to keep Snapchatters safe. More than 6,500 members of the U.S. law enforcement community registered for the event.

Our CEO, Evan Spiegel, kicked off the event by recognizing the vital mission of the U.S. law enforcement community, expressing Snap's commitment to working together, and sharing his vision for Snapchat.    

During the two hour summit, we focused on sharing the operational tools and resources that law enforcement might use to help protect our community. Snap team members discussed 1) the resources and processes we have in place, 2) the product improvements we made in 2024 to make Snapchat safer, and 3) our cross-sector partnerships. 

Through the summit, we seek to reach the broadest possible cross section of the U.S. law enforcement community, facilitate new relationships, and provide practical information about our policies, processes, and safety tools.  

Our Safety Operations Teams 

We introduced participants to some of the team members and resources we have in place to help protect our community. Our Safety Operations team includes Trust and Safety and Law Enforcement Operations, both of which engage with law enforcement and respond to reports of safety concerns from Snapchatters and third party reporters. 

The Trust and Safety team — which includes former members of law enforcement, government, and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children — is dedicated to deterring and removing bad actors on Snapchat by investigating reports and using cutting-edge technology like machine learning to proactively detect illicit content.

The Law Enforcement Operations team, also known as LEO, is the team that engages most closely with law enforcement. LEO is dedicated to responding to legal requests from law enforcement, disclosing data to law enforcement in emergency situations, and generally communicating with and answering questions from law enforcement about safety on Snapchat. 

Snapchat’s Safety Operations work 24/7 with team members based around the globe. In the past five years alone, our Law Enforcement Operations team has tripled, and our Trust and Safety team has grown by about 150% to enable us to respond more quickly to the needs of our community.  

New safety features 

While we have strong built-in protections, we are constantly looking for new ways to make our platform even safer. Already, we make our friends lists private to reduce social pressure. We don’t allow anyone to be messaged directly by anyone they haven’t already added as a friend or isn’t in their phone contacts. And key privacy settings, including location sharing, are set to the strictest standards by default. 

This year, we launched additional safeguards for teens, which we highlighted at the summit. We made improvements to blocking tools and in-app warnings to make it more difficult for strangers to interact with teens. Our in-app warnings now incorporate new and advanced signals. For example, teens might see a warning message if they receive a chat from someone who has been blocked or reported by others, or is from a region where the teen’s network isn’t typically located.

We also announced new location sharing features to Family Center, Snapchat’s in-app hub that offers parental tools and resources. Along with other updates, parents can now ask their teens to share their location on the Snap Map.

Partnerships

In addition to working with law enforcement, we believe a multi-sector, partnership-based approach is an effective way to keep Snapchatters as safe and informed as possible. During the summit we discussed our partnerships with Safe and Sound Schools to develop an educator toolkit and with the Department of Homeland Security on its “Know2Protect” campaign to help inform teens about online safety. We look forward to continuing to work with cross-sector partners to educate and protect our community.

Looking ahead to 2025, we know that more work lies ahead. Our thanks to summit participants for their active participation and engagement as we continue to build a productive relationship with law enforcement authorities around the world to protect our community. 

– Rachel Hochhauser, Head of Safety Operations Outreach