Slashdot Mirror
Police Agencies Using Software To Generate "Threat Scores" of Suspects (washingtonpost.com)
Koreantoast writes: It's no secret that governments across the globe have been taking advantage of new technologies to create stronger surveillance systems on citizens. While many have focused on the actions of intelligence agencies, local police departments continue to create more sophisticated systems as well. A recent article highlights one new system deployed by the Fresno, California police department, Intrado's Beware. The system scours police data, public records, social media, and public Internet data to provide a "threat level" of a potential suspect or residency. The software is part of a broader trend of military counterinsurgency tools and algorithms being repurposed for civil use. While these tools can help police manage actively dangerous situations, providing valuable intel when responding to calls, the analysis also raises serious civil liberties questions both in privacy (where the data comes from) and accuracy (is the data valid, was the analysis done correctly). Also worrying are the long term ramifications to such technologies: there has already been some speculation about "citizen scores," could a criminal threat score be something similar? At very least, as Matt Cagle of the ACLU noted, "there needs to be a meaningful debate... there needs to be safeguards and oversight."
To be fair, I know pitbulls get a bad rap and it seems like the statistics are there to show it, but honestly, pitbulls are the sweetest, most gentle and caring dogs you'll ever meet. It just happens that for some reason a lot of horrible people mistreat their pitbulls and raise them to be vicious dogs when they really aren't by nature. Mistreat any animal and it's going to act out. Get enough people thinking that one breed is "the breed to have because it's vicious" and it turns into a self-perpetuating cycle.
I was unaware that carrying a suitcase full of cash was usually illegal...
http://www.nydailynews.com/new...
Welcome to America.
Only if you're suspected of being a drug dealer under asset forfeiture laws. The police can arrest you, take your cash and don't have to give it back. Some police departments do it as a matter of policy because it easier to shake down the community than ask for a tax raise to pay for new equipment.
http://www.offthegridnews.com/current-events/police-seizing-cash-and-property-from-citizens-without-charges/
The police can arrest you, take your cash and don't have to give it back.
Actually, they don't even have to do the first step. They just take the money, saying they have 'probable cause' to believe that it's involved in drug trafficking.
Can't prove where the money came from? You just sold a bunch of drugs.
Can prove where the money came from? You're looking to buy drugs.
"What about my right to a trial?" - Oh, we know that would fail, so we're not charging you with anything, just your money, and because money isn't a person, it doesn't get rights!
"What about MY rights to MY property?" - Oh, you're so silly!
I don't read AC A human right
"Just out of interest, what other scenario can you think of that is reasonable?"
Not being poor?
But civil asset forfeiture is usually used against stuff not money:
The District of Columbia state prosecutor took them to court and recovered 375 cars that had been seized with no charges pressed against their owners. Gold jewelry, pearl necklaces, if its valuable its seized.
And the shakedown aspect is also clear:
"When Jennifer Boatright and Ron Henderson complained to the county in the hope of retrieving their savings, they got another surprise. Lynda Russell, the district attorney, told them she had warned “repeatedly” that they did not have to sign the waiver, but, if they continued to contest it, they could be indicted on felony charges. “I will contact you and give you an opportunity to turn yourself in without having an officer come to your door,” she wrote in a letter mentioning the prospect of a grand jury. Once again, their custody of the kids was threatened. Boatright and Henderson decided to fight anyway."
So give us your stuff or we try to take your kids from you.
"In August, 2007, Tenaha police pulled Morrow over for “driving too close to the white line,” and took thirty-nine hundred dollars from him. Morrow told Guillory that he was on his way to get dental work done at a Houston mall. (The arresting officers said that his “stories of travel” were inconsistent, as was his account of how much money he had; they also said they detected the “odor of burned marijuana,” although no contraband was found in the car.) Morrow, who is black, was taken to jail, where he pleaded with authorities to call his bank to see proof of his recent cash withdrawal. They declined."
“They impounded my car, and they impounded me, too,” Morrow told me, recalling the night he spent in jail. When he finally agreed to sign away his property, he was released on the side of the road with no money, no vehicle, and no phone. "
http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2013/08/12/taken