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Officials Use Google Earth To Find Unlicensed Pools

Posted by samzenpus on from the eye-in-the-sky dept.

Officials in Riverhead, New York are using Google Earth to root out the owners of unlicensed pools. So far they've found 250 illegal pools and collected $75,000 in fines and fees. Of course not everyone thinks that a city should be spending time looking at aerial pictures of backyards. from the article: "Lillie Coney, associate director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center in Washington, DC, said Google Earth was promoted as an aid to curious travelers but has become a tool for cash-hungry local governments. 'The technology is going so far ahead of what people think is possible, and there is too little discussion about community norms,' she said."

16 of 650 comments (clear)

  1. They collected $75,000... by Crudely_Indecent · · Score: 4, Insightful

    but how much did it cost?

    --


    "Lame" - Galaxar
    1. Re:They collected $75,000... by Volante3192 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      A swimming pool is a massive adjustment to the landscape, involving excavation multiple feet down. You don't know what pipes or wires might be down there. And what if you're on a hill and it breaks because it wasn't properly made, causing a landslide?

      Note, by the way, in the BODY of the article, the word 'license' never shows up. Instead they use variations on 'permit' which sounds much more logical. If you want a pool, you get an inspector, they ensure there's no rogue wiring or geographic problems, they tell the city, then you get your zone permitted to install a pool.

    2. Re:They collected $75,000... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Comparably, government employees typically have salaries a good bit below that in the private sector.

      Total bullshit. I used to work for the private sector at a museum that was then taken over by the federal government. When the takeover went through, I gained ridiculous pension and medical benefits, along with a $10,000+ increase in my annual salary.

    3. Re:They collected $75,000... by Critical+Facilities · · Score: 5, Informative

      If you want a pool, you get an inspector, they ensure there's no rogue wiring or geographic problems,

      On a slight tangent, sometimes a proper permit/inspection can prevent a tragedy.

    4. Re:They collected $75,000... by h4rr4r · · Score: 4, Insightful

      No, they would just lie. Like they already do about flooding.

    5. Re:They collected $75,000... by toadlife · · Score: 5, Informative

      I don't really see how any form of pool malfunction could possibly damage a neighbor's property,

      Pools without gates tend to kill small children. Also pools without double drains tend to suck the innards out of people. Those are two things are usually required and checked as a part of the permit process.

      Truth is, you are just another liberal sado masochist

      Truth is you're just a self centered prick who does get the point of civilization.

      --
      I don't always use unix-like operating systems; but when I do, I prefer FreeBSD.
    6. Re:They collected $75,000... by commodore64_love · · Score: 4, Insightful

      >>>government employees typically have salaries a good bit below that in the private sector

      My engineering job with the FAA was the highest-paying job I've ever had ($55/hour). My second highest commercial/government contractor job was $7 an hour lower.

      I also made note that most of the government employees didn't actually do much work (surfing the net instead). It struck me that this FAA building's sole purpose was probably to help the Congressman/Senator get reelected every few years..... i.e. white collar welfare. In the private sector the building would have been closed and/or 75% of the staff laid off to more accurately match the human resources to the workload.

      Government is more efficient? Hardly.

      --
      "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." - historian Evelyn Beatrice Hall
    7. Re:They collected $75,000... by NiceGeek · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I love the libertarian answer for everything. Of course that answer doesn't prevent the problems from occurring or stop preventable deaths.

      Why don't we go ahead and trash the food safety regulations too? After a couple dozen deaths from E.coli the affected restaurant will be out business.

    8. Re:They collected $75,000... by toadlife · · Score: 4, Informative

      Overhead flights are also used by mosquito abatement districts is to spot "green" pools. When we moved into our house, the pool was a swamp, complete with water bugs and who knows what else living in it. About three weeks later, we got a visit from the mosquito abatement man to inspect our swamp. I had gotten the pool from greenish-black to turquoise by the time. He congratulated me on my progress (he had seen the pool before we moved in) and we never saw him again.

      --
      I don't always use unix-like operating systems; but when I do, I prefer FreeBSD.
  2. This is an appropriate use. by molo · · Score: 5, Insightful

    It is the government office saving money instead of hiring a plane to fly over the neighborhood and take pictures. Or are you going to say that you have a right to privacy from the air? Get real. A $300 fine ($75,000 / 250) doesn't sound excessive for a permit violation either. Now all those pools also need to be inspected for possible code violations. That is where it might get expensive.

    -molo

    --
    Using your sig line to advertise for friends is lame.
    1. Re:This is an appropriate use. by Mastadex · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I agree. They are essentially DOING THEIR JOB but with the added efficiency of Google Earth. I don't see a problem here.

      --
      A morning without coffee is like something without something else.
  3. When a pool fails... by crow · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I had a friend who had a neighbor with an unlicensed above-ground pool. I'm not sure what went wrong, but one day it collapsed, sending all of the water into my friend's back yard, destroying everything there. Building permits are required for good reasons, and they're usually dirt cheap (less than 1% of the project cost). If you're hiring a contractor who doesn't get a building permit, then they're probably not doing it to save you money, but to allow them to skimp on important building code details that might end up costing you a huge amount.

    1. Re:When a pool fails... by DerekLyons · · Score: 4, Interesting

      So if the pool had been licensed then the water wouldn't have done as much damage to your friends back yard when it collapsed?

      Without knowing what went wrong, I'd wager the scenario could run like my what happened here a few years back...
       
      A guy decided to put in a new driveway, and to keep it level carved away part of the foot of a hill. The hill started to slide a little bit, so he built his own six foot tall, thirty foot long retaining wall out of concrete blocks and without benefit of a permit or inspection. Problem was, not only did he not tie the courses together, he also didn't anchor the wall back into the hill, and he didn't provide drains behind the wall. All of which are required by code, should have been specified on the plans submitted for the permit he didn't have, approved by the county engineer as part of the approval process he didn't go through, certified as performed by the licensed contractor he didn't hire, and inspected by the county after completion...
       
      Within a few weeks the county found out about this (I don't recall how) and yellow tagged the house. (Which means the house could not be occupied until the work noted on the tag, in this case replacing the wall, had been properly completed.) A few weeks later, in defiance of the yellow tag, the man moved back into the house because he "didn't want his family to spend Christmas in a hotel". Four days later, during a normal (for these parts) winter rainstorm, the weight of the hill and accumulated water collapsed the wall - and the ensuing mudslide wiped out the house and killed the man, his wife, and three of their children. The only survivor was a teen aged daughter who was at a friends Christmas party.
       
      So the issue isn't that the water wouldn't have done as much damage when it collapsed, but that the odds are if the pool had been properly built it would have been less likely (much less likely) to collapse in the first place.
       
      Not to mention, that most home insurance policies won't cover damages caused by un permitted construction. Nor are you left with any recourse - you'll be liable if you're party to a suit that arises subsequent to any damages caused by failures in such construction.

  4. Talk about google privacy at defcon by socz · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The speaker moxie said basically, what the gov't had been trying to do but would never be able to is what google is doing now. To put it in perspective, he asked: "Who do you think knows more about the people of Iran? It's government, or google?"

    So for all the good google does, this is one small way that it hurts some. That's not to say though, that the people who have these pools are innocent. Yes, we're a capitalistic society as many think, but no, you don't pay to have the roads you drive on to be paved, you contribute like everyone else does in small amounts. And without those small amounts almost nothing would be possible as we get much more and further by working together than alone.

    http://www.defcon.org/html/defcon-18/dc-18-speakers.html#Marlinspike

    --
    My abilities are only limited by my imagination
  5. Re:TOS? by Loco3KGT · · Score: 4, Funny

    busy filling out the paperwork to get your (already built) pool approved by the city council?

    --
    Blessed be he who reads this post, Cursed be he who tells my boss.
  6. Re:Interesting by goodmanj · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The tax you paid on the materials for your garage goes to the state, to ensure that you have a working highway and court system so you and the carpenter who built the garage can do business in peace and harmony.

    The tax you pay on the garage every year afterwards goes to the city or county, to ensure that when the garage catches fire, there's a fire department to save the rest of your house and the neighborhood.

    Stop looking at taxes as just "the Man wants my money", and look at what that money gives you.