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Your Phone May Send You 'Blue Alerts' To Warn You When Local Police Are In Danger (androidpolice.com)
The FCC recently announced a new alert program called "Blue Alert" that will notify the public of threats to law enforcement in real time. "With the creation of a dedicated Blue Alert event code in the Emergency Alert System, state and local law enforcement will have the capability to push immediate warnings out to the public via broadcast, cable, and satellite providers, as well as to consumer smartphones through the Wireless Emergency Alert system," reports Android Police. From the report: Much like both the SILVER and AMBER alert programs, and utilizing the same notification system, Blue Alerts aim to warn the general public of threats to public safety and/or imminent danger. However, the police force focused alert system provides timely information to the public when police officers may be in danger. Chairman of the FCC and recent deregulator of the internet, Ajit Pai detailed the new FCC order saying, "Similar to the Amber Alerts that many are familiar with, Blue Alerts will enable authorities to warn the public when there is actionable information related to a law enforcement officer who is missing, seriously injured or killed in the line of duty, or when there is an imminent credible threat to an officer."
The December 14 order from the FCC activates the Blue Alerts service for one calendar year to deliver the notifications over the Emergency Alert System, and for 18 months over the Wireless Emergency Alert system.
The December 14 order from the FCC activates the Blue Alerts service for one calendar year to deliver the notifications over the Emergency Alert System, and for 18 months over the Wireless Emergency Alert system.
Yes, this is a good idea, let's all converge on the scene of a shootout... Or whatever.
On the one hand, with typical "police behavior", often we are lucky when there are "citizen" observers.
On ywt another hand, this presents a safety danger with unknown consistences many of which are not good.
Another aspect that comes to mind is that this is just one more step in the direction of a "Police State" where our Law Enforcement are seen as some holy religious order, our Priests in Blue... We've all seen these 200 car processions when a police officer is killed in the line of duty...
I don't think this is a well thought-out idea.
If you want news from today, you have to come back tomorrow.
Grab our rifles and come help. No future to that.
"Eve of Destruction", it's not just for old hippies anymore...
The Marines?
What exactly are we supposed to do about it? Gather up the posse and ride off to their rescue? If only we had a paid, professional organization whose job it was to rescue those in great peril...
How about an app that warns us when police are nearby and can be set to automatically record and stream to chosen sites if they get within ten feet? Cops nowadays are little more than sociopaths in military gear, and I'd rather not I (or possibly even my husband) get raped, killed, and our car arrested on suspicion of resisting.
Just passing one by is quickly becoming a coin-toss as to whether or not we end up beaten and arrested on trumped-up charges especially if we're black. Police are not the ones that need protecting from anyone.
What a total waste of money, time and infrastructure. Not that any PD would ever use it, but still...
Perhaps a Black Alert to tell the public when unarmed black men are endangered by the police?
"He took a duck in the face at 250 knots." -- William Gibson, Pattern Recognition
A policeofficer is in danger to many days for the idea to have any merit.
Most police would advise against entering a hostile situation, thereby creating another potential victim or hostage.
https://www.youtube.com/c/BrendaEM
All I imagine is a group of gang-bangers laughing as their phones go off while they are the cause of the threat.
I don't have the foggiest notion what this is supposed to accomplish, really. If a situation is such that a cop is seriously endangered, what in the world could I do about it?
It looks to me like all this does is to further decrease the signal-to-noise ratio in these sorts of things.
...matter so much more than yours or mine.
I can see this being useful for off-duty police officers, as there have been cases of them being accosted. However, ordinary people don't need to know every time a police officer gets hurt in a traffic collision (statistically, by far, the leading cause of unnatural serious injury or death to on-duty police.) I could maybe see this as some kind of active shooter alert system... but it's so overbroad it's almost never going to be such a scenario, and people will turn it off/tune it out and never get the message. Furthermore, if I'm hiding from a shooter and my phone starts a siren that can be heard a block away, I'm not gonna be hidden any longer.
Corruption is convincing someone that the selfless ideal is the same as their selfish ideal.
When the cops ARE the danger?
Perhaps a Black Alert to tell the public when unarmed black men are endangered by the police?
Wouldn't it be more efficient to have a Black Non-Alert for when unarmed black men aren't endangered by the police? Then you'd only have to send it out once, maybe twice a year.
Political parties will follow the public safety messages into your phone.
Reassuring daily messages from a local government that illegal migrants are welcome in the city?
Pushed gov updates on what a SJW city council wants to do.
Daily lists of city services that are free for illegal migrants?
Once one part of gov gets to push out messages, every part of gov will find a need to send out free party political propaganda.
Protected by a gov/telco partnership so the messages have to be viewed in the GUI.
Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
How about an app for when real people are in trouble?
Another set of alerts to disable.
The real "Libtards" are the Libertarians!
Seriously, this guy is a complete tool and needs to be replaced by someone with a clue. GOP is running the show so they can pick their team, but Ajit is going to hurt them in the long run with his terrible choices.
e.g. something to rile up people and maybe get some more "tough on crime" legislation. I can't think of any other reason to do this. This is not information the public needs to know on a real time basis.
Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
Great. Just freakin' great. This bloody thing is going to go off every time a Black man is pulled over.
Uh, last i heard the "SJW" crowd tended more toward anti-police sentiments in general while the anti-"SJW"s were all "blue lives matter". So why do you think the "SJW"s are behind a plan to mobilize people to help police?
Is one of us confused about what "SJW"s want? Or are you just blaming anything you don't agree with on some "SJW cabal" that you've made up in your head?
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BLUE ALERT: Officer has spotted a black man failing to indicate a right turn for at least 3 seconds before starting the maneuver. All residents are advised to remain indoors and definitely do not come out and record the shooting and post to social media.
The volume of amber alerts is low, I'm perfectly willing to receive and at least check out a few license plates if that info is provided.
Sometimes the alert is uselessly vague, a picture could at least help, but describing a fairly common vehicle and/or person in text format doesn't give me anything I could use to help identify. If there is an off chance that it clicks that something looks a bit off and matches the description, ok.
The silver alerts seem to bit a bit more half-assed. I only know that one exists when one of the electronic signs says "there is a silver alert, *call for more info*, not nearly so aggressive. Generally when you do look into it, it's keep an eye out for person who is liekly to be wandering out of their mind, which when I have seen that I'd call about it regardless.
I am a bit curious as to the intent of a blue alert. For the other alerts, they want as many people as possible to assisst by looking and calling in. Surely for a blue alert they already know what is up and don't need help. If it is to keep bystanders out, it seems a weird way of phrasing it.
XML is like violence. If it doesn't solve the problem, use more.
'Blue Alerts' To Warn You When Local Police Are In Danger
Now we'll all get pestered whenever someone points a camera at the police.
It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
1) I have no idea what they are hoping people do with that information. So the result will be random at best.
2) It seems like a way to crowd source mobs to attack the police.
3) It's the kind of feedback criminals can use to infer where the police are focused.
4) It's also a method by which criminals can cause an event to distract the police or upset the systemic responses of police.
5) It provides a signal for people to come an watch / video - actually attracting innocent by-standers.
6) If the system is hijacked, it allows a great way of confusing and disrupting the police.
7) It creates the avenue to create fake blue signals to produce panic and inappropriate responses in both the population and police.
... will take this as authorization to shoot on site.
I am licensed to carry in Texas and I'm always armed (concealed) because I am a wildlife photographer.
I have trained to use only while peeing down both legs from fear of dying.
OTOH, I train with Ramboweenies who are looking for any excuse to kill someone.
Here's their chance.
It little behooves the best of us to comment on the rest of us.
If a city wants to track crime then put that free data to good use and create a useful app for good people.
Buy up an entire towns worth of data on every person, home, crime and layer it.
Not just the open free city data, all the pay to view private sector data that is collected on crime.
Get all the data on crime, generations of criminals, insurance costs, rent costs, number of people sharing a home. All the hidden statistics that really show what a part of the USA is really like over the decades.
Layer the numbers, crimes over an interactive real time map.
Then FOIA the Blue Alert event code and layer that on top.
Sell a demographics app to warn people from outside the city, the better parts of a town that they are entering a bad part of the town.
A nice friendly bright normal map GUI in the safe areas.
The more darker, gloomy colors with voice and GUI when entering an area that should always be avoided. A final apex predator warning for the no-go area parts of a city.
Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
You're saying that all those unarmed black men killed by cops brought it on themselves?
Perhaps a Black Alert to tell the public when unarmed black men are endangered by the police?
If that's implemented, it'll just result in everyone's phones loudly buzzing continuously until the batteries run out.
,,, when Republicans or Democrats (respectively) are alleged to have grabbed a pussy.
It little behooves the best of us to comment on the rest of us.
Exactly. This one would be switched off immediately.
I mean, Emergency Alerts? Yeah, definitely. If there's a tornado or wildfire or something bearing down on me, it'd be nice to be notified (and not necessarily have to sit there with a TV/Radio on, just in case). AMBER alerts? Well, okay, I suppose that's helpful in certain situations and, besides, I turn it off anyway for much the same reason. I'd leave it on if it could be made smarter. I don't need this alert at 4:00AM when I'm sleeping, but it might be nice if it would store it so that when I start driving to work, it'll pop-up and say, "Hey, keep an eye out for a blue chevy..."
I might understand something like this for a very narrow area--for example, if police are looking for a suspect hiding in your area, an alert to the people the, say, 12 block cordoned-off area saying that they should lock their doors and be on the lookout for a guy in a green hoodie might be useful. But I think this already exists.
Again, this system is supposed to be useful for me. How is this proposed system helpful for me?
It's called a trigger - " I'm a cop I feel threatened now I can legally murder you"!
Amber and silver alerts involve people who pose little or no threat to the general population. Blue alerts involve people who have already proven to be a danger to law enforcement. Stare at that creepy guy in the next car who matches the description in the text message and he will think nothing of blowing your head off if he feels threatened.
Yeah. Great idea.
Have gnu, will travel.
No one makes a person risk their life, unless there's a cop draft I'm not familiar with.
National Security Letter.
We're interested in this guy who is wearing an Allah-u Akbar vest. We want you to spy on him for us. There's nothing you can do about it. Nobody you can complain to. You must comply.
Oh, by the way. Don't act nervous or anything when he walks in the front door to pay his broadband bill. Or he might push the button.
Have gnu, will travel.
Will they send "Black & Blue" Alerts whenever the police are beating the shit out of someone who is subdued? Will they send "Black & Red" Alerts whenever the cops unload their magazines into unarmed suspects? Will they send "Yellow & Blue" Alerts when they Tazer grandmothers? Will they send "Spotted Alerts" whenever they shoot someones dog? Will they send "White" Alerts when they shoot babies in their crib during SWAT home invasions? Just wondering.
They're also planning to start using Gold Alerts, which allow local bankers and business people to push out alerts to cell phone users when they identify a rich person in danger of not having ALL the money he can, due to some grubby peasant somehow managing to come-by some, so that nearby citizens can respond appropriately by taking whatever money anyone nearby might somehow have come into possession of, and handing it directly to the financially endangered rich person, helping him avoid the possibility of his being reduced to being merely well-off. (The HORROR!)
Our reign has gone on long enough. Indeed. Summon the meteors.
What if they have to change the light bulbs for the blue alerts? Surely that takes time.
Ezekiel 23:20
This from the same police that wanted apco 25 encrypted audio so we couldnâ(TM)t know what was going on in their world? Really?
First, sending alerts to people who do not need to take immediate specific action will cause many to turn off alerts entirely. I was woken by one of the large scale Amber alerts - about a child kidnapped 300 MILES from my house. So I've turned off all the alerts that I can.
Secondly, there is no specific action for people to take when police are in distress. I can't imagine that the police want a bunch of armed citizens with no situational awareness converging on the site of some emergency. Seems like that will make almost any situation worse.
Finally, while I believe that most police do a good service to the community, I do not seem them as being unusually noble or risk-taking. Firemen, pilots, and roofers and many others are also exposed to danger while serving the community. Why not an "asphalt alert" when a roofer falls and is injured?
Ow!! My ears. The current test alerts are so loud that I grab the remote to mute the TV. What about alert saturation? Ho-hum, not another one? Who cares?
Perhaps something by NWA?
Policeman doesn't even crack the top 10 most dangerous jobs in the USA. What's next, Tree Service worker in danger alerts?
And there's something strange in the neighborhood?
People, this warning system is for you and me.
What do police do when protecting their own?
Pretty much anything. Think mama bear and her cubs.
This is common in the mammalian family.
Do you want to be anywhere near mama bear?
No. Be thankful for the warning.
His ignorance covered the whole earth like a blanket, and there was hardly a hole in it anywhere. - Mark Twain
Since the police have no legal duty to protect my ass, why should I care if they are in danger? Am I supposed to grab a gun and run to their rescue - probably getting shot by cops in the process since they such scared little girls who like to shoot people?
-- Will program for bandwidth
people will avoid " blue alert " areas like the plague.
Because, like the plague, Death awaits you there.
Police are trigger happy at their best, shoot-first-ask-questions-later types at their worst. Can you guess which personality type you're likely to run into when they're under duress ?
Sorry you're in trouble, but due to the behavior of some ( as you call it ) " bad apples ", you are on your own.
You want my help ? Start treating non-LE types as human beings and we'll talk about it.
Until then, good luck.
Or are you just blaming anything you don't agree with on some "SJW cabal" that you've made up in your head?
Serious question: do you think there is no group of people who self-identify as SJW and who want to force a particular ideology on the majority? Because I'm pretty certain that that qualifies as a "SJW Cabal", and they're most certainly not made-up.
I'm a minority race. Save your vitriol for white people.
When the cops ARE the danger?
How often does that happen? What's the odds that a citizen will die at the hands of a police officer? According to this source, 937 people were killed by police officers in 2017.
The odds of the cops being a danger to you are miniscule, and those odds drop further if you aren't engaged in a violent crime.
You're being hysterical, making a mountain out of a molehill.
I'm a minority race. Save your vitriol for white people.
I used to listen to a police scanner a lot. I mean, a LOT lot. Had radios at home, in my car, and even a handheld to keep me tuned in even on the toilet. No I didn't have a girlfriend at the time, how did you possibly guess? Geez. Mindreaders.
Anyway, the thing with scanners is you know what the hell is happening, to an extent, as soon as the police do. It can drive spikes in blood pressure listening to a traffic stop turn into a shootout, etc etc. And I had issues with that and the fact the the number one rule, as such, about listening to scanner stuff is never ever never ever never go to the scenes of what you hear. Stay the hell out of it.
Eventually, the local PD moved to a trunked radio system and none of my radios could hear them. A girlfriend model was acquired and it didn't like listening to police radios either. So I quit. I have no clue what my local PD is doing and I don't care.
I do not need or want shit alerts showing up to tell me they ran out of dougnuts or some bullshit deemed a police emergency. If they have an emergency, fuck it, they have mutual aid agreements with ALL the adjacent police agencies. They can call up those folks and get trained, real cops to come help. Do that thing. Don't try to get amateurs into the act. The Pros are bad enough,
Sig for hire.
One doesn't expect old Red Dwarf references to show up on Slashdot very much anymore. Well done.
Serious question: Do you think there are people who self-identify as SJW?
You're a moron
You may never change your moron status
(Those are the first two hits on google. If you seriously think there is no *proudly* self-identified SJW you are living in a fantasy.)
I'm a minority race. Save your vitriol for white people.
So long as I won't be able to fine people who run red lights and drive 30 over the speed limit, I'll let the cops do their own job themselves.
If they have something that can tell ME they're in trouble, surely there will be enough of THEM on the way to help that they won't even need ME.
What's the point of this? Really?
I tend to rant.
You're being hysterical, making a mountain out of a molehill.
The cops get safer every year, but the cops kill more of us every year, while simultaneously claiming that there is a "war on cops" going on. It may not be a mountain yet, but it's well past molehill.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
...and a brown alert when there's a health-code violation at the local curry house ;-)
You're being hysterical, making a mountain out of a molehill.
The cops get safer every year, but the cops kill more of us every year, while simultaneously claiming that there is a "war on cops" going on. It may not be a mountain yet, but it's well past molehill.
From the link at my previous response, it seems that the cops killed 64 unarmed people for all of 2017 (all ages).
64 out of 300m is very much a molehill - it's not even a rounding error.
Look, I'm as wary of armed men standing around with not much to do as the next person. I'm of the opinion that all interactions with the police should be recorded. I believe that the job attracts bullies, and that the cops close ranks to protect their own. I refuse to answer affirmative when asked "May we enter your house" and "Can we search your car"...
But, 64 killings out of 300m is literally statistical noise, especially considering that these people are in public all day, everyday, armed as well. We can't even plot those numbers on a chart that includes other unlikely causes of death in the US, such as falling down (11,500 last I checked).
Getting killed by cop is exceptionally unlikely. You are 180 times more likely to die by tripping over your own feet than by death by cop.
I'm a minority race. Save your vitriol for white people.
Too bad the police don't have some sort of radio-based system for alerting each other... they should work on that...
WTF am I supposed to do about it? Grab my gun and run in to help, firing every which way like Yosemite Sam? Yes, that would help the situation.
Slow down, cowboy! It has been 4 hours since you last posted. You must wait another few hours.
Perhaps I fail to understand the workings and purpose of this Blue Alert thing.
Police already have a thankless job. It is hard enough for them w/o the general public (potentially) rushing to (and interfering with) a scene.
I already get a notice in the local papers when a cop is injured or killed.
I cannot imagine how alerting me real time would actually change that.
Perhaps we are now all to rush to a scene and start video recording on our smart phone?!
Every instance where I have been near the presence of a crime, I was told to move on and don't interfere.
Tell me again how this idiot Ajit Pai came into office? And why he is still there?
Self-importance and self-indulgence is the root of ALL evil.
I do not know what a SILVER alert is, but will add this to the list of alerts I ignore ....
( I do pay attention to the weather alerts however )
Fascism and Nazism both aimed at a planned economy geared for expansionist war and an all encompassing state - Mussolini defined fascism as "All within the state, nothing outside the state, nothing against the state". Pinochetian-Minarchism has a small state consisting mostly of a few army employees engaged in murderous anti communist activities with ageing rotary aircraft. Outside the state private enterprise is unaffected, and in fact privatisation means formerly owned state owned companies are sold to the private sector.
Fascism and Nazism are a form of socialism but Pinochetian-Minarchism is a Minarchist night watchman state where the army has a somewhat suspicious accident record when transporting civilians.
echo -e 'global _start\n _start:\n mov eax, 2\n int 80h\n jmp _start' > a.asm; nasm a.asm -f elf; ld a.o -o a;
How many good Samaritans are going to run into a situation where the police themselves are in danger?
How many cowboys are going to run in with guns drawn and cause problems? Will responding civilians be able to identify plain-clothes officers?
How long until gangs or other cop-haters start watching for these alerts so they can save their friends or ambush the responders?
This is the worst idea I have heard in a long, long time. But, hey, this country loves paying lip service to cops. This is a stupid, dangerous gesture.
---
According to the latest ruleset, this post should be modded as Vorpal Flamebait +5.
You call those economies planned? The British and (to a lesser extent) the US had much more planning in their wartime economies, even after Todt and Speer rationalized the Nazi economy in 1943-44.
Not even close. If you're looking for right-wing socialism in the WWII era, look up the proposed Showa Restoration, proposed by right-wing Japanese nationalists, which would have nationalized pretty much everything.
"When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
I'm for social justice, but I prefer to play magic-using characters.
"When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
Finally Ajit Shitpai did something good.
I do not believe in karma. "Funny"=-6. Do good and forbid evil. Yours, Oft-Offtopic Flamebaiting Troll.
Nothing like telling all the criminals where the cops are so the criminals can go gang up on them.
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Nobody kills more black men then other, non police, black men. Where is the outcry on this? It is absolutely wrong for black men to be wrongly killed by cops - but why doesn't anyone care about the black on black violence in our society?
SJWs are basically nihilists. They want destruction, as near as I can tell.
Because Frankly My dear, I don't give a damn!
WARNING: Smartphones have side effects--most of them undocumented.
How about an alert you get when the police are endangering people?
There's no time like the present. Well, the past used to be.