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Dallas Police Falsely Credit TrapWire System For Arrests

Posted by timothy on from the for-large-values-of-zero dept.

In April, the Texas Department of Public Safety told a reporter for the Dallas Morning News, inspired by information leaked by Wikileaks to ask about ways that the agency might be compromising citizen's privacy and other rights, that the TrapWire behavioral analysis system employed in combination with surveillance equipment posted at various high-profile locations around the state had resulted in 44 arrests. However, after numerous public records requests for more information about those claimed arrests, the agency admitted that the true figure is somewhat lower: namely, zero. The story naturally involves "millions" of dollars (though an exact figure for the zero-arrest system isn't named), and Austin-based Stratfor, a company that's been named a few times here on Slashdot.

12 of 31 comments (clear)

  1. Even if it was true, terrible value for money by Dr_Barnowl · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Even if it was true... millions of dollars for ... 44 arrests?

    Wonder what the arrest rate of 20 extra pairs of feet on the street is?

    1. Re:Even if it was true, terrible value for money by rmdingler · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Even if it was true... millions of dollars for ... 44 arrests?

      Wonder what the arrest rate of 20 extra pairs of feet on the street is?

      Yep, everything's bigger in Texas: the State Police and the police state.

      Even if it was true... millions of breaches into the innocent communications of private citizens for... 44 arrests.

      --
      Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.

      Ernest Hemingway

    2. Re:Even if it was true, terrible value for money by Dunbal · · Score: 2

      Considering that the Brits are now in the dozens of millions of pounds for standing two (2) policemen outside the Ecuadorian embassy for a couple years, I'd think hundreds of millions of dollars. What this really means is that the system is completely broken and money just disappears, which is to be expected in a corrupt nation.

      --
      Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
    3. Re:Even if it was true, terrible value for money by akpoff · · Score: 3, Insightful

      None of the stories I've seen put the figure at "dozens of millions of pounds". This article from The Telegraph puts the figure at £11.1 million. The article notes that £6.5m of that figure are "police officer pay costs that would be incurred in normal duties" and mentions overtime costs and "indirect" costs, tallying together to an additional £3.8m. Also, if the picture in the article shows a typical guard detail we see at least 4 uniformed officers, not 2.

      We should also take into account those 4 officers are not engaged in regular beat policing but the very specific task of waiting for a very specific person to exit a specific location. There's also the very real possibility this is a politically-motivated policing detail with all the visibility and CYA costs that come with it.

      The point may yet be valid but to a lesser degree and perhaps not at all just based on numbers. And with the other factors the Assange case may be so unusual that no meaningful comparison can be made.

  2. Data collection for other purposes? by Mostly+a+lurker · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Apart from the obvious stench of corrupt commercial dealings, we should not forget that data collection by law enforcement has not always been for crime fighting purposes. Recall, for instance, J Edgar Hoover's uses for such data.

  3. DPS != Dallas Police by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

    DPS is the state law enforcement agency. Dallas Police is the police force for the City of Dallas. Maybe that's not an important distinction, but I think basic facts are important for the credibility of a story.

  4. And still... by MitchDev · · Score: 3

    The police wonder why fewer and fewer people trust them at all...

    1. Re:And still... by ememisya · · Score: 4, Interesting

      There's an old Turkish saying, I'll be that guy and translate it. "A barking dog won't bite." It basically means that anyone who is serious about a crime (terror category or the normal category, not sure how it falls into which one, but I suspect one has more beards) is not going to advertise it online or otherwise. Take a look at 9/11, there weren't a lot of tweets about it before hand. Yes indeed sacrificing your privacy only buys paranoia on a large scale, bloated budgets, broken citizens, and smug authorities.

    2. Re:And still... by TonyJohn · · Score: 3, Informative

      Not negating your point, but Twitter was five years too late for 9/11.

      --
      Owl tried to think of something wise to say, but couldn't.
  5. Puffery? LOL by Runaway1956 · · Score: 2

    "DPS puffs up its stats the way Donald Trump puffs his hair."

    Face it, cops are cops. They get off on the adrenaline rush when the make a bust, and then they get off on bragging about it afterwards. And, of course the bragging gets inflated.

    Except, in this case, they never even made a bust!

    --
    "Windows is like the faint smell of piss in a subway: it's there, and there's nothing you can do about it." - Charlie Br
  6. Everybody runs by rmdingler · · Score: 2

    The Trapwire info page reads like a Hollywood advertisement for the Precrime unit in Minority Report.

    --
    Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.

    Ernest Hemingway

  7. Re:Stop with the cop bashing. by mr_mischief · · Score: 2

    Do you mean we should look at the crime rates that took a precipitous fall in the mid 1990s? Those crime rates you want us to look at? The ones that have been falling ever since, even through the worst recession in decades? How much more spending on putting "broken window" offenders in expensive prisons do we need to stave off this unfortunate fall in crime? We need crime to look so bad and scary so the people will keep letting their governments spend disproportionate amounts of money imprisoning people for victimless crimes. How else will the prison lobbies bring home the bacon to their masters?