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FCC Complaint: Baltimore Police Breaking Law With Use of Stingray Phone Trackers (baltimoresun.com)
An anonymous reader writes from a report via Baltimore Sun: Civil rights groups have complained to the FCC over the Baltimore Police Department's use of stingray phone tracking devices. They claim that "the way police use it interferes with emergency calls and is racially discriminatory." Baltimore Sun reports: "The complaint argues that the police department doesn't have a proper license to use the devices and is in violation of federal law. It calls on regulators at the Federal Communications Commission to step in and formally remind law enforcement agencies of the rules. 'The public is relying on the Commission to carry out its statutory obligation to do so, to fulfill its public commitment to do so, and to put an end to widespread network interference caused by rampant unlicensed transmissions made by BPD and other departments around the country,' the groups say in the complaint. Police in Baltimore acknowledged in court last year that they had used the devices thousands of times to investigate crimes ranging from violent attacks to the theft of cellphones. Investigators had been concealing the technology from judges and defense lawyers and after the revelations Maryland's second highest court ruled that police should get a warrant before using a Stingray. The groups argue that surveillance using the devices also undermines people's free speech rights and describe the use of Stingrays as an electronic form of the intrusive police practices described in the scathing Justice Department report on the police department's pattern of civil rights violations."
It's becoming more and more clear, that Baltimore is going to require a truly massive purge of it's law enforcement ranks. Not just slaps on the wrist, or re-training, but a flat-out "You're fired, and law enforcement credentials revoked" kind of thing.
There won't be any mass riots or anything like that. Those happen because the firings haven't happened when they should.
If anything, it'll become the most peaceful, most pleasant city to live in, until a fresh crop of high-IQ, college-graduates can be convinced to take the job.
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It is entirely conceivable that if the Stingrays and police were deployed in white neighborhoods and businesses, that most of the crime would be suddenly discovered there.
Prove anything by multiplying Huge Number times Tiny Number
The problem is in your first statement.
Being a criminal, does not imply that you are not a victim. It's entirely possible (and in fact common) for the police to victimise someone who is a criminal. Further, it's entirely possible for someone who has been victimised by the police, to feel that the world is out to get them (because it is), and become a criminal.