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NYC Opens 911 Hotline To Pictures, Video
Anti-Globalism brings news that New York City has set up a system to accept pictures and videos for their 911 and non-emergency hotlines. The files can come from cell phones, computers, and PDAs. Quoting:
"Tipsters in New York City can now send photos and video ... to report crimes and quality-of-life issues such as potholes, officials announced Tuesday. Depending on the case, the images may be shared widely with the public, with police officers on patrol, individual detectives or other law enforcement agencies, according to city officials. The images may also be used to help in assessing and responding to emergencies."
It might make sense for non-emergency lines, but opening up the 911 seems to be asking for trouble with deluge of trivial, non-emergency data.
-- "This world is a comedy to those who think, a tragedy to those who feel."
Does anyone remember that novel?
is of course 912.
That actually sounds like a good idea to me. How often do we get news about authorities using new technologies in a positive manner instead of taking a stance against them?
It does sound like a great idea with many benefits. Unfortunately this is going to open a big can of worms. I know privacy advocates might take exception and there will be certain drawbacks such as people thinking it is funny to send 911 a picture of their shaft & balls on a friend's cell phone. I hope people treat it responsibly but I have reservations.
That is all.
I always thought my wife's breasts were criminally saggy.
I can just imagine /b/ sending images of tidus, radiohead lyrics, and pedobear to this through an op divert
"When 911 callers tell police operators that photos or video related to their complaint are available, a detective with the New York Police Department's Real Time Crime Center will call back to receive the images."
Instead of one phone call and staying on the line, you now have to hang up so a detective can call you back to teach you how to send an image from your phone?
Have they even thought about the way they are going to make people feel at their weakest most vulnerable moment? And then great, they have a picture. This will help how? A video will be next to useless as you will be shaking to much. A picture may be worth a thousand words but it isn't going to help if most of those words are "covered in blood". What if the light is bad, and makes the patient look like they have blue lips? I have to imagine they have thought of all these things. TFA says little to nothing.
"Bloomberg said in a statement. "If your cell phone is equipped with a camera--and many are these days--you might be able to get a picture of something that will help the police solve a crime."
Or you might cause another as the criminal beats the hell out of you to get your phone.
I reserve the write to mangle english.
Yeah. But at the cost of their quality of life.
Seriously. How about actually improving yourself?
Hello, 911? It's Quagmire. Yeah, it's caught in the window this time.
Give the stupidity of governments these days, I could see them "solving" the problem of hoax calls that way.
Pics or it ain't true!
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
and i'd say it was about time!
DON'T PANIC
Great. So now you never know who is watching you, so you are afraid of everyone.
Sounds like early nazi germany to me.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
a thought that seems to have been neglected(and given the nature of /. is odd); as any considered the poor people working there? all that is needed is for some 4chan beasty to decide it would be amusing to goatce/tubgirl/meatspin.. the operators..... the horror!
Sending goatse to SWAT, the people that can put you in a place where your asshole will be expanded. Doesn't sound like a smart idea to me.
It could end up being a real pain in the ass. Get it? Pain in the ass? I kill myself! (Applause from all of slashdot)
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
If this is used properly by the people of New York.. they will be snapping shots of crooked cops all over the place & hopefully getting them sent to prison in droves.
As mentioned by someone else last time he posted a story, Anti-Globalism's personal link is to corrupt.org, a neo-nazi website. It's sad that Slashdot isn't paying any attention to this problem, and is willingly promoting their hate speech.
Haven't they considered the fact of doctored photos? I real criminal can easily game the system by sending fake pictures of an emergency in location a while they rob a bank in location b.
I've been asking for this 911 feature right here in NYC for years.
I want to snap a picture (from the passenger seat, of course) of the homicidal maniac who just cut me off on the FDR Drive, including their license plate, send it to 911, then call, and tell the cops I'm following them from a safe distance until they arrive. Then the cops can arrest them and charge them with attempted murder. I'll be happy to show up in court to back up all the evidence.
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make install -not war
911 should simply require that every submitted message come with a live person on a separate voice call, from the same callerID (the ones to 911 are ~100% reliable, in its parallel phone network). The caller should tell the 911 operator what the message means, and swear to back it up in testimony, for which the caller will later be called.
All the multimedia should go into a big library, from which it's called as evidence (like if the responding cops immediately deploy, with a picture of a license plate or an accused rapist). A separate squad of cops/researchers should go through the "anonymous" messages to see whether there is indeed anything submitted in there the cops can use anyway, even if the sender never shows up again. The incoming messages don't have to be in the critical path.
Unless they're attached to a witness. Then of course the cops should be able to check it out, just like any other eyewitness report they get.
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make install -not war
Now I want my car to have cameras on it all the time, recording 360 degrees. If anything happens, my car should send the clip from the last several seconds or minutes over to 911. With GPS if I allow it, and patch me through by voice to give my eyewitness testimony.
Then, when I follow the perp I videoed, the cops can back me up, and take over when they get wherever they're going.
I'm the TRAFFIC AVENGER, HAHAHAHAHA!!!
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make install -not war
I bet they haven't been to the goatse site yet. I'll fix that in sec.
People have been arrested for photographing buildings and such, and their equipment confiscated, being accused of plotting terrorist acts. People suspected of terrorism have had photographs they possessed used as evidence against them. Now people are going to be taking pictures and video of people, places and things in NYC, where they're already sensitized to this kind of thing.
It's only a matter of time before some law enforcement person sees someone taking pictures of something, intended to be sent to 911, and investigates the situation for possible terrorist intent. In most cases the "perp" will be able to show their true intent, but it's only a matter of time before someone can't get themselves cleared on the spot and is arrested for suspected terrorism. Almost everyone so accused and arrested have been cleared and released, but many of them have been held without due process for extreme amounts of time.
Envision a cab driver taking pictures of potholes. Not very damaging you'd think. Now envision that cab driver as wearing a turban, as many do in NYC. Figure their odds.
"I may be synthetic, but I'm not stupid." -- Bishop 341-B