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Law Enforcement by Machines
Inst1gator writes "Nowadays, it seems as if more and more law enforcement is being done by machines. Unfortunately, they don't seem to be up to the job. And the humans don't want to take responsibility, either. This is a great "wakeup call" for those of you who are not aware."
Not only does the robots need to get better at law enforcement,
... testified that an IP address is, "in very simple terms, a Social Security number. Only one person at one specific time can have that number." In fact, an IP address identifies a computer, rather than a person, and may not even consistently map to a particular machine in networks that use dynamic IP addressing.
... is not authorized by Warner Bros. ... or the law."
so do the Humans involved
At the bail hearing for Johnston, Tinney and three other defendants in Houston, the FBI's Kristen Sheldon
any one that is even allowed to even get near law enforcement in this area show have some kind of technology background, judges and jury included
The brief also identifies a file entitled "harry potter book report.rtf" whose name and tiny size (1K) make obvious that it is not an illegal copy of the Harry Potter movie. Obvious to anyone who looks, anyway. But why should the record and movie companies bother to look? They're unlikely to suffer any damages if ISPs take down the wrong files, and the consumers involved are unlikely to sue them. (In filing with the Internet Service Providers, a company representative even certified in writing "that we have a good faith belief that use of the material
a person was definately involved in this situation, yet it was allowed to get this far
this should let everyone know that we have a problem, and that the "general public" is not as informed as we had hoped/thought
Conscience is the inner voice that warns us somebody is looking - H.L. Mencken
There is one of these devices near my house. Although it does not give tickets still ellicits a Pavlovian response. Going more than 5 milez per hour over the speed limit, triggers a siren noise, and a "strobe" light until you decrease speed back to the psudo-legal range (Max MPH+5).
For the first few weeks of it being there, brake lights were flashing like none other (people tend to go very fast in this area), but now about 4 months later, the speeds in the area are back to the legal (and slow) speeds.
.noitacidem deen uoy siht daer nac uoy fI
In my local town, we have a new system that is this giant red box thats a combo mug shot taker, fingerprint scanner, and general data entry system. I got arrested recently for posession and i noticed how inaccurate it kept records of me, screwed up my photo a few times, and how compared with previous ink fingerprints i've had done in the past, it picked up the smallest details, like the incredably small scar thats hard to see by eye and made it a HUGE black line across my print, almost to the point that it could have voided that print invalid due to lack of comparison points. Technology should be curtailed to jobs they can do well
Go with humans, who are known fallable and subjective, or machines, who are known fallable and too objective. In the name of jusice (being blind and all) I think most of us would agree we would prefer an emotionally-inert policing force. The problem is then this: how do we trust them? Are they just being unilaterally fair or inept?
Cops now might pick up someone for Driving while Black but a machine wouldn't differentiate between the lunatic going 125 and the man rushing to get his dying wife to the hospital.
In the end we all assume we have a good idea how people are going to act. Thus we will always distrust machines to watch over us. These story remind me of Skynet from the Terminator. "Afterwards all stealth bombers flew with perfect operational records."
How did that story turn out? Man, out of fear, turns against the Machine. The Machine retaliates. Funny thing is that I think most people would agree with the story. In our heart of hearts all of us are Luddites. Heck, just read the poster's last comment: "This is a great "wakeup call" for those of you who are not aware."
What is music when you despise all sound?
The article uses the example of a web crawler that uses a simple match of keywords to identify copyrighted material. But it's not the web crawler itself that's the problem... the problem is that the people who are running the operation are unwilling to invest the time and resources to (1) improve their software, and (2) verify results by human experts.
Like so many other things, it comes down to human laziness and apathy. We use automated systems to help generate solutions to problems in science and engineering... but all results are verified by intelligent people before they are put to real use. Software and other automation tricks are used to HELP people decide, not to replace people in the decision process.
The motorcyclists in Europe have been hit hard by the ticketing machines, or so I've heard.
Not only do they have limits by age and displacement, now this big brother stuff...cameras mounted in trees, etc.
From what I've heard, some people are wearing masks and sneaking up to the cams and wrenching them...black spray paint over the lens or a strategic hammer blow, etc.
Treatment, not tyranny. End the drug war and free our American POWs.
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Isnt this what Lawrence Lessig was talking about in his big code is law rant?
Its makes sense, that if some piece of software is going to make legally binding judgements against you, that you should at least get to see the source code.
If not, then how the hell do you really know what the law is...
Under Canadian law, Manitoba law atleast, it is a legal requirement that you proceed into an intersection on a green light if you are making a left turn and it is safe to enter the intersection.
It is NOT relevent whether it is safe to proceed THROUGH the intersection.
I know of more than 1 person who failed their drivers test for not following this particular requirement.
On the other hand, it is a rare occasion when you cannot leave the intersection on the yellow/amber, asuming your stuck making a left for that long.
I worked in a computer vision lab that was commissioned to invent a vision system for downtown Orlando that would detect violence or possibly disturbing behavior. Actually, about all we got was a heck of a lot of publicity, and an agreement that when we finished our research, the city would buy the hardware.
Anyway, we called it the downtown project because most of the rest of our work was for the academic community, Darpa, or Lockheed-Martin.
Our goal was similar to most such projects: to allow policemen to focus on suspicious activity, and to ignore what isn't. You've heard the phrase "a policeman on every street corner?" Why have them there if nothing is happening?
We're not talking about putting these in neighborhoods; not it private areas - in fact, this came up during the conversations we had with local government and they were very much against it -we're talking about putting them in very public places. This is a measure which is intended to save lives and potentially lower the cost of law enforcement.
One of the things I like best about this is that unlike policemen, cameras are colorblind. They don't care if you're homeless, or a minority, rich or poor. They only look at what you're doing. A policemen's attention won't be tuned to an area because he doesn't like the color of skin of its inhabitants (which has a lot to do with how it works right now), he'll be doing it because he got an impartial warning. Seems like a good idea to me.
Mod me down and I will become more powerful than you can possibly imagine!
The UK has a proliferation of speed and traffic light cameras.
The later I agree with having been almost in collision with drivers who have jumped the lights both at the start and end of the sequence. Here in the UK the sequence is red, red+amber, green, amber red. The rules of the road state the following meanings:
o Red means stop
o Amber means stop if it is safe to do so
o Green means proceed if it is safe to do so.
So you shouldn't enter an intersection if you'll just block it.
We also have what's known as a box junction. These have yellow hashing on the road and you are only allowed to enter the box if your exit is clear. In London they have started putting cameras on these too.
As for speed cameras. Many of these are inappropriately set and positioned. The speed someone drives at should be appropriate to the road and conditions. A motor/freeway with a speed limit of 70mph doesn't mean you should drive at 70mph in the rain and fog on that road. Cameras don't generally take advantage of this.
There is one exception. The London orbital motorway has cameras linked to the speed limit which is adjustable with road conditions. These are fair.
Our older cameras use film which run out. There was also a problem that you need to identify the driver as well as the car and the old cameras point at the rear of the car. New digital cameras have been introduced which can fine you before you even realise (using image recognition to read the number/licence plate). These point at the front of the car to recognise the driver.
There are a small number of individuals who have a campaign against cameras, they spray the lenses, set fire to them and in some cases cut through the pole with a grinder and steal them!
As for me. I'm a biker. By pulling along side a car while going through the camera zone you can confuse it. You can dummy them in to taking pictures of the car behind. The new digital ones are useless as bikes don't have a front plate and can't see your face through your visor (full face helmet of course). I have some friends who purposely set them off by wheelying at speed through the camera zone with digitus impudicous aloft. There must be many of these photos laying on police desks. Finally, it's stupid, but the fine for not having a licence plate on your vehicle is less that the one for speeding and it doesn't affect your driving licence, so if you plan on having some fun, take it off.
Folks, our job is to follow the law and let the police focus on nabbing the real criminals out there.
I am one of those luddites who use those stubby things for walking. People in general drive like ass, and most are blissfully ignorant of how often they nearly kill themselves or other people. Nothing is funnier than hearing a suit or a soccer mom try to explain that the accident could not have been their fault. After all they he/she is such a good person...
Most americans do not know how to set their own boundaries. We eat whatever size steak the resteraunt serves, no matter how obsurdly huge. We pay for our Schooling, no matter how obsurdly expensive. We gun our engines at a green light, and bitch loudly about having to stop again in 40 feet, and what crappy gas mileage we get.
Face it, an automated traffic monitoring system may finally convince people that there are laws to obey beyond the laws of physics! Innocent people may occasionally get a speeding ticket, but it sure beats innocent people being taken out by some car crossing the median after losing control from driving to fast!
"Learning is not compulsory... neither is survival."
--Dr.W.Edwards Deming