Police Nation-Wide Use Wall-Penetrating Radars To Peer Into Homes
mi writes At least 50 U.S. law enforcement agencies have secretly equipped their officers with radar devices that allow them to effectively peer through the walls of houses to see whether anyone is inside. The device the Marshals Service and others are using, known as the Range-R, looks like a sophisticated stud-finder. Its display shows whether it has detected movement on the other side of a wall and, if so, how far away it is — but it does not show a picture of what's happening inside. The Range-R's maker, L-3 Communications, estimates it has sold about 200 devices to 50 law enforcement agencies at a cost of about $6,000 each. Other radar devices have far more advanced capabilities, including three-dimensional displays of where people are located inside a building, according to marketing materials from their manufacturers. One is capable of being mounted on a drone. And the Justice Department has funded research to develop systems that can map the interiors of buildings and locate the people within them.
Is not it great, how much civilization you can buy with your taxes today?
In Soviet Washington the swamp drains you.
Maybe some kind of software defined radio contraption in a flying platform.
I know, the foil hat theory... But seriously, science backs up that foil works to block RF (and when done well could approach Faraday cage tightness)...
At least we're safer now?
...and wasn't the conclusion that we were waiting on a ruling through the courts?
If a police dog is considered equipment, and cannot be used without a warrant when dealing with homes, and if other law-enforcement devices whose specific purpose is to detect into homes have been ruled in the past to need warrants, then wouldn't it follow that once this does reach the courts, it'll be found inadmissable because of a lack of warrant?
Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
Have they tried ringing the doorbell? I could supply them with a device to do that at, what, half the price of these doohickeys.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
... of innocent law-abiding civilians.
Because the criminals will have these www.instructables.com/id/Radio-Jammer/
Nothing to see here... move along, SNAFU.
Sent from my ENIAC
The problem isn't the ability of the device. The problem is the lack of due process.
For instance, if we know we've got a hostage situation, this kind of thing is entirely appropriate, and no judge should hesitate to enable it via a proper warrant. That doesn't mean the police should be free to use it at any time, at their own discretion.
Same thing goes for any other search tech that enables normal privacy boundaries to be crossed on a whim.
Search is like any other weapon in this way: a critical issue is how it is to be used, both in what the rules are, and in how well the rules are obeyed.
I've fallen off your lawn, and I can't get up.
Stud Finder @ Home Depot
Title: "Police Nation-Wide Use Wall-Penetrating Radars To Peer Into Homes"
Summary: "it does not show a picture of what's happening inside"
P.S. Layout's still fucked. If you're too dumb to fix it just revert to the old one already.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
This peekaboo device is exactly what the break & enter artists have been dreaming about. Nobody home? Perfect!
Knew about that...
But with 3d renderings? That would be much cooler... To find that cross brace that someone tacked up to hold up a shelf that is no longer there...
Argument one will be that these devices are in no way in contradiction with the fourth amendment because nobody with RF-permiable walls can have a reasonable expectation of privacy in anything they just leave lying around in the open like that. It's not different, aside from wavelength and a few hundred thousand dollars worth of hardware, from leaving things right next to a giant window, right?
If that one fails (sadly, this can be rated as only 'moderately' probable), its utility against Drugs, Terrorists, Pedo-terrorist-drugs, and similar threats to the community will be trotted out. If (again, sadly, this can be rated as only 'moderately' probable) the judge points out that 'utility' is actually orthogonal to 'legality' we will move to argument three:
The devices will be transferred to the jurisdiction of an entity with substantial clandestine activity(DEA, say) and all information pertaining to its use will be classified, and all information derived from its use will be laundered by 'parallel construction'; and any FOIA requests, evidence requests by defense attorneys, and similar uppity behavior will be referred to a blank denial on the grounds of 'potentially compromising classified sources and methods'.
And everyone called me crazy when I wrapped my whole house in grounded chicken-wire when I re-did the siding. Now who gets the last laugh?
Mwa. Ha. HaHa!
Funny though, my cell phone doesn't work inside the house anymore. Damned AT&T and their crappy network!
How will a radio jammer stop radar?
The cops need a warrant to use these things is because of an interesting Supreme Court decision from 2001.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kyllo_v._United_States
The traditional "liberal" and "conservative" wings fell apart and Ginsburg joined Scalia in the majority. Scalia's decision specifically addressed future technologies like this. It's strange how he's really good on privacy issues and really bad on everything else.
Discussed earlier
http://yro.slashdot.org/story/...
10 years ago, the Supreme Court ruled, in the case of IR devices, that, although they were passively observing, government needed to get a warrant to use them. Technological adgancements shall not obviate expected constitutional protections. People expect privacy and advances that did not exist then cannot take advantage of loopholes like that.
So, I hope these people are getting warrants, or I expect to see hundreds of law enforcement officials going to jail.
By the way, as people move more and more of their lives into virtual, online arenas, they take with them the same expectation of privacy. The Supreme Court should similarly require warrants for all that, too, closing the loophole that, since it's at some coompany, "you have no expectation of privacy."
People create this virtual presence for their own convenience, not so government can have a virtual warrantless panopticon.
(-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
I understand that chicken-wire has an extremely high radar cross section, as it's a regularly spaced array. I wonder how hard it is to see behind such a screen. Of course the attenuation varies by the spatial dimensions, A fun bit of calculation would be to find what the right size(s) of chicken-wire you need to block such instruments given their frequency ranges (assuming ISM band?). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R...
I first read about how strong a return you get from chicken-wire from Stimson's book "Introduction to Airborne Radar" ..which is a pretty easy to read with a lot of colorful graphs, and is mostly targeted to fighter pilots, with blue boxes around the more complicated math for the more interested students. Most books ether have no math/calculus, or are geared toward graduate students. This particular one is a good mix between the two that gives you intuition when reading the graduate books..
http://www.militaryaerospace.com/articles/print/volume-12/issue-12/news/time-domain-through-wall-surveillance-radar-aids-in-counter-terrorism-and-urban-warfare.html
My recollection is that the device worked as claimed but operated at frequencies that ultimately were not approved by the FCC. They attempted a wireless alternative to USB 3.0 which failed but got some press. They have morphed their application of ultra-wide band frequencies and are still around today.
Captcha: romance
Metalized low-E glass really limits that stuff as well as aluminum siding. The magnetic paint sold for kids rooms also will create a very high reflective barrier to significantly hamper this tech.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
Consider installing a metallic foil shield that lines the interior surface of your roof. Sound farfetched? It isn't. Its called a Radiant Barrier, and it serves a very practical purpose. It substantially reduces your air conditioning bills in the hot months. That's not going to help protect your privacy through your walls though. Perhaps it's time for the wall mounted mirror tiles and foil-based wallpapers of the 1970's to make a comeback...
in your eyes perhaps. not in mine
have you seen my sig? there are many others like it but none that are the same
Highly concentrated beams of radio waves are known to cause cold pizza to become hot.
FTFY.
It takes a lot of RF exposure over a very, very long time to increase your chances of getting cancer by a statistically detectable amount. Despite decades of data, (and several very poor quality, highly-biased studies) there is still not a clear correlation between cell phone exposure and brain cancer*. During the course of a police action, the device will likely be on for a few seconds while they recon the inside of the building. For that to cause harm over that short amount of time, it would have to be emitting many kilowatts or even a megawatt of energy; and not only would the resulting burns be ridiculously painful, your heart would short circuit and your eyes would probably boil and explode. Cancer would be the least of your worries.
* If there was a link, cell phone usage is so prevalent across the globe that we should be able to trace a perfect curve that matches cell phone usage to brain cancer mortality statistics. But there isn't even a hint that brain cancer rates are changing due to phones. Toxins? Pollution? Asbestos? Smoking? Volatile Organic Compounds? All those have traceable curves that map exposure to human diseases. Cell phone exposure? Zero.
John
A firefighter has a reason to be there if there is a fire to fight. As the SCOTUS already said, police using this sort of thing without a warrant is an illegal search.
As others have said, this definitely seems to be a warrant required device -- cops should in NO WAY be able to just run around willy nilly doing this. The opportunity for abuse is too great.
I think in the case of a say a hostage situation (or something along those lines), you could argue it's an exigent circumstance and could exclude a warrant. But the exclusion should only in extreme circumstances.
'The unexamined life is not worth living' - Socrates
Radar is completely ineffective against water. Radar doesn't penetrate water. Any criminal with a basic understanding of even the most basic science will hide next to a hotwater heater.
That OR the police kick in everyones door because they've confused all hot water heaters with criminals in hiding.
plain smell should not even be used. I cant tell you how many times when people get pulled over cops all of a sudden "smell" something when they wanna look in the car (before anyone brings up my name... dont. I get the irony of me complaining about cops sense of smell)
have you seen my sig? there are many others like it but none that are the same
They don't "see" into shit. Read the summary. All it does is inform the officer if there's movement inside, which doesn't really tell them much.
For large sets, this will be our guide even unto death, for the LORD will work for each type of data it is applied to...
My plan is to install a 15ft high wire mesh completely surrounding my yard and gate and underneath my roof to block IR, Radar, X-Rays, and other RF signals.
Within my yard, I will generate disruptive signals which the mesh will fully contain but prevent the usage of any kind of drone or bug or other wireless device inside the shielded area.
Surely that should help discourage this kind of privacy invasion?
Yes, there's a good chance that versions of this technology capable of producing detailed 3D maps will be abused without the courts stepping in. On the other hand, it seems to me there's also a perfectly legitimate use for which the simple versions described in TFS are well suited: SWAT teams checking to see if there's anyone on the other side of the door they're about to bust down (with a warrant). That use has the potential to save lives without infringing on anyones rights.
Failure to follow this advice may result in non-deterministic behavior.
well duhh a RADAR uses radio signals. Radio signals are emitted by a radar and it measures the reflection of those radio signals. Read radio waves.
Looks like those building raids the police carried on on Minority Report and other Sci-Fi stories are closer and closer to come true...
That doesn't work on my walls. I have an older drywall that was plastered over. I think my walls are somewhere between 3/4" and 1" thick and nothing I've tried will find the studs.
And the NSA COULD use mass surveillance to help catch actual terrorists... but the ends don't justify the means. Get a warrant or screw off.
And finding indoor pot farms isn't even a good thing; the war on drugs is garbage.
or to keep you from driving picture nail denting and then through duct right behind drywall that you didn't know went to upper floor...
Thank you. It seemed like nobody realized that someone vegging out in a chair, or lying quietly in a bed won't be picked up by this shit. Or, on the other hand, there is SOMETHING radar reflective moving inside. Could be a dog or a robot.
So it really doesn't tell them anything useful whatsoever.
> At least 50 U.S. law enforcement agencies have secretly equipped their officers with radar devices
I can't think of anything wrong with secret police behavior. I mean, has that led to any problems in the past? What could possibly go wrong?
Hudson: 9 meters. 7. 6.
Ripley: That can't be; that's inside the room.
Hudson: It's reading right man, look!
Hicks: Then you're not reading *it* right.
Hudson: 5 meters, man. 4. What the hell?
This post cannot be rebroadcast without the express written constent of Major League Baseball.
http://yro.slashdot.org/story/14/12/31/0310256/doppler-radar-used-by-police-to-determine-home-occupancy
Of course news about a fake are Fake News.
I have no problem with this, provided the cops obtain a warrant through established judicial process.
If a police officer walks by and he is able to look into your house because you did not close the window, it is legal. Right?
If he needs glasses to see he uses a device to better see, there still isn't an issue, right?
So this device is perfectly legal, right?
This is what you get when you think privacy is only about where you are. They will take it away, inch by inch. To me privacy is not about WHERE I am, but about WHAT I am. So it must include not only my home, but also my data, where I was when and what I was doing.
There will be reasons that this must be overruled. That is what due process should be for.
Privacy should be the first thing that you must defend. Without it all the other rights are useless. See how many amendments will keep standing if you take away privacy. And those that are not imediatly are gone will be easy to take away if the rest is gone.
Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
It's VERY easy to fix the problem with radar going inside houses. Build houses with aluminum foil on the walls.
In older houses, put aluminum foil on the walls, then more insulation, then drywall. Save money on heating and cooling.
Make a law that says no new houses can be built without foil on the walls.
Want to cite a law about that? Because I have never seen that exception in any law regarding radio frequencies. Federal law prohibits the operation, marketing, or sale of any type of jamming equipment, including devices that interfere with cellular and Personal Communication Services (PCS), police radar, Global Positioning Systems (GPS), and wireless networking services (Wi-Fi). Applicable Law The Communications Act of 1934 Section 301 - requires persons operating or using radio transmitters to be licensed or authorized under the Commission's rules (47 U.S.C. 301) Section 302(b) - prohibits the manufacture, importation, marketing, sale or operation of these devices within the United States (47 U.S.C. 302a(b)) Section 333 - prohibits willful or malicious interference with the radio communications of any station licensed or authorized under the Act or operated by the U.S. Government (47 U.S.C. 333) Section 503 - allows the FCC to impose forfeitures for willful or repeated violations of the Communications Act, the Commission's rules, regulations, or related orders, as well as for violations of the terms and conditions of any license, certificate, or other Commission authorization, among other things. Sections 510 - allows for seizure of unlawful equipment (47 U.S.C. 510) The Commission's Rules Section 2.803 - prohibits the manufacture, importation, marketing, sale or operation of these devices within the United States (47 C.F.R. 2.803) Section 2.807 - provides for certain limited exceptions, such as the sale to U.S. government users (47 C.F.R. 2.807) The Criminal Code (Enforced by the Department of Justice) Title 18, Section 1362 - prohibits willful or malicious interference to US government communications; subjects the operator to possible fines, imprisonment, or both (18 U.S.C. 1362) Title 18, Section 1367(a) - prohibits intentional or malicious interference to satellite communications; subjects the operator to possible fines, imprisonment, or both (18 U.S.C. 1367(a))
Sorry, teleporters just kill you and then make a copy. A perfect, soul-less copy.
I hate you slashdot, thanks for handling (completely ignoring) my formatting so well.
Sorry, teleporters just kill you and then make a copy. A perfect, soul-less copy.
I thought this type of surveillance, was addressed as requiring a warrant back when it was first brought out using infrared tech to 'peer' into peoples homes?
Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
And that is the reason why I'm not sad to see the use of this stuff become more advanced and more widespread. This device wouldn't have prevented that--kid in a crib isn't moving around--but if they could actually see stuff through walls, or at least spot heat signatures (yeah I know it's really damn hard), that would be a great tool in a SWAT team's kit for minimizing fatalities on both sides. Restrict it to entry warrants and I don't see a problem.
Because the criminals will have these www.instructables.com/id/Radio-Jammer/
It is easy to picture the geek turned criminal putting a neon sign on his roof with an arrow pointing to "Rocky's Hideout," like a character in an old Bugs Bunny cartoon. He never thinks these things through.
Wow. You've managed to out-cube Time-cube.
Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
Exactly. And maybe one of the radar makers will secretly start a corporation that makes radar jammers. Eventually all radar will become useless.
And anyone re-painting a wall could put aluminum foil on the wall first.
Most importantly: Some of the automobile radar detectors would probably work as house radar detectors.
How much energy will the police need to transmit in order to penetrate a home and accurately see it's occupants? Are we all just to accept the fact we'll receive several lifetimes worth of x-ray radiation if the police suspect us of something?
I suspect the laws in the '70's banning lead paint was to prepare for this inevitable day.
Your looking at the wrong studies.
Look at the studies of military radar operators from the 50s and 60s. They would stand in front of the radar dishes to stay _warm_ north of the arctic circle.
They have no detectable increase in cancer rates beyond what all electronic techs have. They can statistically see the cancer caused by flux, but see no increase from massive exposures to RF energy. Even better they are mostly dead by now, so the study is final. They were tracked to the grave.
The cops and a bunch of lawyers are trying to prove that basically any cop that gets cancer deserves even more money. Because they claim it was caused by radar guns. No statistical correlation.
John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
Taken from the manufacturer's website (emphasis added):
It seems a layer of sheet metal just behind the drywall would be a Good Thing. It may resolve some other problems as well.
www.wavefront-av.com
Off topic but I hope this helps:
Powerful magnetic stud finder. Works better than just a magnet, and better than any kind of auto sensing electronics or something. I have inch thick lathe and plaster walls so the studs are waaaaay back there but this works really well. It takes a little practice to get used to the very subtle pull but once you get the touch it works wonders.
That's brilliant. Not buying one, but I have several rare earth magnets that should do the job. Thanks! I still have not put up any towel bars in my bathroom since moving in. I've seen cheap stud finders that are magnet-based but I never thought about a stronger magnet.
Are they any good at finding studs...?
Human studs, yes. Building studs, no.
Table-ized A.I.
The solution is to widen your moat, breed more moat monsters and get dogs. Ninja pigs help too.
Which Americans are sick of this? Because from what I see, most support unconstitutional things such as the NSA's mass surveillance and the TSA, or are apathetic about them.
I could have used one of these last summer when I had rats in my walls.
TV and cell phones: Use an outside antenna, and bring a stronger signal inside. From $29, it says, for the cheapest antenna.
Well, I can't vouch for any specific model, but from what I understand from articles I've read at least some units are perfectly capable of detecting breathing and other involuntary movements. They use doppler radar and can pick up incredibly slow motion. Your chest is very large - I don't know if it would pick up insects, but it wouldn't surprise me if they could detect a breathing person. Pets would likely set it off as well.
That's even cooler than I thought. I knew high power radar was responsible for some bird deaths, but they were directly exposed to very high power radiation. I didn't know about the army tech statistics, so thanks! (And would you happen to have a citation to it I could use?)
John
WiFi and cell phone reception can be aided by antennas, even antennas that don't have amplifiers.
I wonder what bands are used for the radar. There are limits to what is available.
I'm going to move into a house formed from hundreds of Hoffman enclosures...
"Theres something wrong with the radar sir...I've lost the sweeps, the bleeps, and the creeps.".
"The radar, it appears to be...JAMMED!"
"Raspberry, no body gives me the raspberry, except... LoneStar!"
I Googled it years ago. S/N ratio is high in the results. Didn't save the link, but it was out there.
John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'