Law Enforcement
ICE License Plate Tracking Plan Withdrawn Amid Outcry About
Blank Hawaii License Plate Related Content (CNN) — Homeland security officials on Wednesday abruptly shelved a proposal to build a national database of license-plate scans after criticism from privacy advocates. The proposal, which had been posted online last week by the office of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, sought a contractor who could establish a searchable database of license plates, with the times and locations where they were spotted by traffic cameras and other sources. But in a statement late Wednesday, the department announced a reversal. “The solicitation, which was posted without the awareness of ICE leadership, has been canceled,” said spokeswoman Gillian Christensen. “While we continue to support a range of technologies to help meet our law enforcement mission, this solicitation will be reviewed to ensure the path forward appropriately meets our operational needs.” It was unclear whether the proposal was dead or was merely withdrawn for revisions. Under the proposal, officers in the field would have been able to use their smartphones to look up a license plate and see every time and every place the vehicle had been spotted by a camera. “The database should track vehicle license plate numbers that pass through cameras or are voluntarily entered into the system from a variety of sources (access control systems, asset recovery specialists, etc.) and uploaded to share with law enforcement,” the original solicitation read. The proposed National License Plate Recognition database was to have been used by immigration officers to find and arrest fugitives. Supporters of license-plate […]
Source khon2.com
Department Of Homeland Security Seeks Technology To Create License Plate Database
Catherine Herridge is reporting today on privacy concerns over the federal government’s apparent push to track license plates as a way to find fugitive undocumented immigrants. License Plate Readers: Keeping Us Safe or Violating Our Privacy? Here’s more from Fox News Latino : The federal agency tasked with arresting and deporting undocumented immigrants, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, put out an official request last week for contractors to submit bids for commercial technology that would help the agency its law enforcement officers tap into the National License Plate Recognition Database, or NLPR. “The database should track vehicle license plate numbers that pass through cameras or are voluntarily entered into the system from a variety of sources (access control systems, asset recovery specialists, etc.) and uploaded to share with law enforcement," the request for proposals stated ."NLPR information will be used by DHS/ICE to assist in the location and arrest of absconders and criminal aliens.” The technology that ICE wants developed for the agency would allow agents to use smart phones to quickly snap a photo of a license plate and quickly determine the plate is on a "hot list" of "target vehicles." License plate readers, however, would automatically record information on all vehicles that cross their paths instead of just suspect vehicles. "This system is supposed to be for the Immigrations and Customs Enforcement branch of DHS, for the tracking of illegal immigrants," said J.J. Green, a national security correspondent in Washington D.C. for WTOP radio. The ACLU […]
Source thebrownsboard.com
9/11 Conspiracy Theorist Snuck Past Super Bowl Security To Interrupt Postgame Show
The NFL’s layers of security at Super Bowl XLVIII proved vulnerable to an expired festival pass and some social engineering. During MVP Malcolm Smith’s postgame appearance, independent journalist and conspiracy theorist Matthew Mills rushed the stage and grabbed the microphone, exhorting viewers to investigate the truth about 9/11. Mills wasn’t just hijacking a press conference, though: he had infiltrated a stadium that law enforcement hoped would be all but impenetrable. Before the event, police and the FBI had set up multiple layers of security in an attempt to identify potential terrorists, mixing plainclothes agents into the crowd and setting up hundreds of temporary security cameras in Midtown Manhattan to catch suspicious activity… Continue reading… via The Verge – All Posts http://ift.tt/1dYlJLT
Oakland Police Must Step Up Use Of Vest Cameras
If you’re an Oakland police officer, there are now three things you should not leave home without. Your badge, your gun and your trusty personal data recording device – more commonly called a vest camera. The most recently published report on the Oakland Police Department’s efforts to meet a set of decade-old, court-ordered reforms found the department slipped in making progress and noted that police officer use of vest cameras is still falling short. Independent monitor Robert Warshaw’s 16th quarterly report, which covered the period from July to September, said some officers failed to activate cameras at critical times while others went weeks without replacements waiting for broken cameras to be repaired. "In too many instances, there are questions about the measure to which personnel throughout the Department understand the use, review, and utility of these devices. During our early reviews of the (cameras) we found that officers often failed to activate their devices during interactions with subjects who were being arrested, and in incidents where force was used." Warshaw’s report also suggested that there was little oversight to ensure the cameras were used properly. Current department policy requires mandatory use of vest cameras by every officer who is issued one, said Interim Police Chief Sean Whent. The department has issued vest cameras to all of its 460 patrol officers and maintains a reserve supply of about 70, Whent said. But mandatory overtime, which requires detectives and sergeants to work patrol shifts, along with occasional equipment breakdowns, have created […]
Framed For Selling Crack, Surveillance Video Helps Him Sue Police
Busted for selling crack, a New York smoke shop owner used his surveillance system to prove he was set up by a police informant. Donald Andrews, the owner of the shop, says his lawyer will file a wrongful arrest suit against the city, seeking $500,000 from the police department, county and the village. Andrews opened up Dabb City Smoke Shop in Scotia, New York last January. By April he was arrested for selling crack cocaine. In one of his few media interviews since the arrest, Andrews told us about the set up. The Arrest A police informant, James Slater, visited the shop on March 25th and 29th and said on both occasions he bought crack from Andrews. He provided cell phone photos of crack rocks on the front counter of the shop. Around April 11, police raided the shop and arrested Andrews . From the very beginning Andrews asserted his innocence.“I kept telling them that I had video, and I could show them that never happened and that I wasn’t selling drugs. The cops said there was no need for that — that they had me on video, and they had audio. They said, ‘We don’t need to watch your video,’ but the confiscated my system anyway,” he said. He was in jail for five days before he made bail. When he got out, he contacted a lawyer. Grand Jury, Hearing Prosecutors Refuse to Return DVR At his grand jury hearing, he says he testified that he had video […]
Source ipvm.com
NYPD Installs 200 Cameras Ahead Of Super Bowl
Published: January 24, 2014 1:20 PM By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS A technician works on a light post where… Photo credit: AP | A technician works on a light post where a temporary surveillance camera is installed in New York. New York City police are blanketing midtown Manhattan with temporary surveillance cameras as one of many security measures being taken to protect visitors for the Super Bowl. (Jan. 23, 2014) When Super Bowl fans fill the streets of New York City next week, police will be watching them closely — in person, in the air and on closed-circuit monitors. The New York Police Department has quietly installed about 200 temporary surveillance cameras in midtown Manhattan to help spot trouble along "Super Bowl Boulevard," a 13-block street fair on Broadway that’s expected to draw large crowds during the windup to the game. Banners promoting the fair compete on the same lampposts with decidedly less festive signs reading, "NYPD Security Camera in Area." The heavy surveillance is one facet of a vast security effort by scores of law enforcement agencies that spent the past two years devising their own version of a zone defense to protect Super Bowl events that are all over the map. Manhattan and Brooklyn will be the scene of dozens of pre-game gatherings, while across the Hudson River, Newark will stage Media Day, Jersey City will host the Seahawks and Broncos at hotels there before the kickoff on Feb. 2 at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford. At a […]
Source www.newsday.com
CaughtOnCamera: Marion County FL Corrections Officer Slams Inmate’s Head Into Concrete Wall
Seymour Hersh: US Troops Carrying Out ‘Battlefield Executions’ In Afghanistan Corrections Officer Slams Inmate’s Head Against a Concrete Wall in Florida Leaving Bloody Injury Video reveals the horrifying moment a corrections officer slams inmate’s head against a concrete wall Charles Broaderick smashes James Duckworth’s head against the jail wall in Marion County, Florida after accusing the man of spitting at him He then pins Duckworth to the wall by his neck as the man starts to bleed Duckworth, who had been arrested before the October incident for driving under the influence, needed stitches Broaderick was arrested and now faces an assault charge – he has also been put on unpaid leave while the case continues Dramatic video has revealed the moment a corrections officer smacked a suspect’s head against a brick wall – leaving him with a bloody injury that needed stitches. Officer Charles Broaderick, 41, was arrested, charged with assault and locked up for just 13 minutes following the attack on James Duckworth at the Marion County Jail in Florida on October 8. Broaderick and two other officers questioning Duckworth, who had been arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence, claimed after the incident that the had been combative and needed to be restrained. Violent: Corrections officer Charles Broaderick can be seen smashing a suspect’s head against the jail wall in Marion County, Florida in October. Broaderick now faces assault charges in the incident Pinned: Broaderick can then be seen pushing against the suspect’s neck and head […]
Source www.liveleak.com
Seattle-Based Wearable Camera Maker Focusing On Prosumer Market
Steve Ward had wearable cameras in his sights when he was a Seattle police officer on bike patrols in the late 1990s. Back then, he figured body-worn devices could show 100 percent of what a cop deals with on a daily basis, rather than the 5 percent or so that is seen on the dashboard camera videos that have become a staple of evening newscasts. Yet, Ward had to wait for the technology to catch up with his ideas. “Now we have smaller batteries, longer life and smaller image sensors,” he said. Ward now also has his own six-year-old company, VIEVU, and an initial body-worn camera that’s been successfully marketed to the law enforcement community. That product is now used by 3,000 agencies in 16 countries. Ward’s newest product, the VIEVU2 (VIEVU Squared), is a response to requests he was hearing from a different marketplace as he was selling his first wearable camera. “We’d get a lot of people coming to us saying, ‘hey, make us a camera that we can use to protect our businesses, or protect ourselves and our jobs,” Ward said. “So we listened to what the market said.” The VIEVU Squared is the result: a rugged, square-ish camera that fits in the palm of a hand, and is primarily targeting home service professionals, security personnel or business owners. “These are professionals that have liability in their jobs, or a business person who wants to protect their company. So we make a camera that they can […]
Source www.king5.com
New Thermal Imaging Cameras For U.S. Border Patrol
Illustration photo (123rf) Illustration photo (123rf) The U.S customs and border s (CBP) has awarded a contract worth more than $67,000 to General Dynamics Global Imaging Technologies, Inc. to supply its Z-500 long-range thermal imaging camera s for the U.S. Border Patrol to use at its Calexico Station in California to spot criminal organizations crossing the border in ultra-light aircraft. “ The Calexico Station currently lacks the capability to efficiently monitor the criminal organizations and terrorists engaging in or planning illicit activities along the U.S. border ,” says a CBP award notice posted on November 4. “Current Thermal Cameras are insufficient, outdated, and often fail; land units are unable to exploit the use of new camera technology due to there being none. As a result, Calexico Station requests to modernize and reinforce its current capabilities based on the criminal organizations methods being used to evade Border Patrol enforcement.” According to Government Security News the Z-500 is the only camera thermal imaging system that is compatible with the Remote Video Surveillance System (RVSS), which is also being used at the Calexico Station. iHLS – Israel Homeland Security “ With outstanding long-range target detection and recognition, the Z-500 continuous zoom long-range thermal imager is the camera of choice for force protection and surveillance ,” says General Dynamics on its own Web site. “User-defined preset field-of-view options offer the user unprecedented mission flexibility. The camera is easily integrated into any command and control system and provides easy-to-use push button interaction. With its […]
Source i-hls.com
Store Owner Accuses Police Of Profiling Customers, Employees
MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. (WSVN) — An internal investigation is underway after a South Florida business owner is accusing police officers of acting above the law. Ali Saleh, owner of 207 Quickstop, located on Northwest 207th Street in Miami Gardens, is accusing Miami Gardens Police of allegedly taking his patrons and employees into custody without valid reason. “My customers started calling me before they come here, ‘Can we go to the store? Is police up front?'” said Saleah. Saleh has installed several security cameras around his store but not to watch out for crooks. He said he mainly put them up to catch police officers in action. Surveillance video captured an employee at the store being taken into custody by police. That employee, according to records, has been arrested dozens of times for trespassing. According to Saleh, one of his customers who was drinking outside his store was told by police to get rid of the open container. The man followed police’s orders. The customer then wanted to enter the store, but officers told the man he could not. The man was arrested before he was thrown to the ground. Saleh said the man was not trespassing at his store. He feels the arrests by police are unjustified and is filing a civil rights lawsuit against the Miami Gardens Police Department. “Make me feel abused. I believe and live in America, and America has a Constitution, and it has to be to protect the citizens,” said Saleh. City officials said […]
Source www.wsvn.com
GA Department Of Natural Resources Invests In Cameras
GAINESVILLE, Ga. — Georgia Department of Natural Resources officials say body-mounted cameras for police officers in its law enforcement branch were a good investment. Officers like wearing the devices, called Vidmics, because they assure police an accurate depiction of interactions with citizens, Major Stephen Adams told the Gainesville Times. “It provides a good tool to reduce complaints from the public, to protect the officer and to protect the public,” Adams said. “There’s no recounting what happened — you watch the complaint.” The devices can guard the public from abusive police practices while protecting officers from false accusations, said staff attorney for the Georgia branch of the American Civil Liberties Union, Chad Brock. The ACLU supports the use of the devices with proper safeguards, he said. “There shouldn’t be a policy where the officer can selectively turn off the recording. We would want to get a full picture, in guarding against abusive processes,” Brock said. The department has about 150 Vidmics and officers aren’t required to tell citizens they’re talking to that they’re being recorded, Adams said. In accordance with state guidelines, he added that the Department of Natural Resources keeps the footage on file for five years. The ACLU would like to see the data storage policies tweaked, Brock said. “We would want to see data retention policies that require police to destroy any of the video surveillance within a reasonable time for a routine encounter — three days to two weeks — unless there was a reason for […]
Source www.timesfreepress.com
Forensics Expert Says ?Original Files? Are Missing From Security Cameras At Dead Georgia Teen?s School
By Arturo Garcia Friday, November 22, 2013 17:40 EST Forensic expert tells CNN there’s missing footage from dead Georgia teen’s gym [CNN] At least an hour of footage is missing from each of the four surveillance cameras at Kendrick Johnson’s high school, and the original footage showing how the Georgia teenager died might be gone, CNN reported on Thursday. “Those files are not original files,” forensics video analyst Grant Fredericks told CNN. “They’re not something investigators should rely on for the truth of the video.” CNN enlisted Fredericks in order to analyze more than 290 hours of video it acquired from Lowndes County High School, where the 17-year-old was found dead in the gym in January. Local officials initially determined that he died from asphyxiation after getting trapped inside a gym mat, an argument his family has rejected. An independent autopsy ordered by the victim’s family found the cause of death to be “unexplained, apparent non-accidental, blunt force trauma.” But while the Lowndes Public Schools district told CNN the video it provided was “a raw feed with no edits,” Fredericks disagreed, saying it was “altered in a number of ways, primarily in image quality and likely in dropped information, information loss. There are also a number of files that are corrupted because they’ve not been processed correctly and they’re not playable. I can’t say why they were done that way, but they were not done correctly, and they were not done thoroughly. So we’re missing information.” Specifically, two of […]
Source www.rawstory.com
Steve Duin: Portland Police Re-Dedicate Themselves To Video Surveillance
They were walking, Bill Merritt and Peggy McClure, in the damp shadow of the communication tower atop Council Crest when they bumped into a crew laboring over a manhole and the underground fiber-optic cable that rolls down the hillside. What’s going on? they asked. “A dedicated line,” one of the ditch-diggers said, “running from the tower down to the Portland police station.” “Great,” McClure said. “So, that means we’ll have quicker response time on 9-1-1 calls?” Not at all, she was told. This line was dedicated to something else altogether. “Police surveillance. It will pick up signals from police-operated aircraft. Which are sorta like manned drones.” Merritt and McClure have been together for 20 years and married for the last seven, most of which they spent abroad while McClure was managing Peace Corps operations in Botswana and Morocco. For all they knew, this broadband operation had already been vetted in council sessions, neighborhood meetings and newspaper columns. “We’ve been out of the loop,” Merritt conceded. “But what are we surveilling?” Whatever strikes the fancy of Portland police, it turns out. And once those fiber-optic connections are completed at the Portland Building, the bureau will be able to stream the video to anyone who wants it. “We do not have drones. We are not getting drones. Period,” Sgt. Pete Simpson insisted Thursday. The bureau’s Cessnas, on the other hand, have been around for years: “We use them for tactical situations. Block searches. Missing persons. If we’re doing a gang cool-down […]
Source www.oregonlive.com
Lowell, MA Police Deploy New Surveillance Vehicle
Press Release – For Immediate Release Contact: Public Information Officer: Captain Kelly Richardson [email protected] Office: (978) 674-1709 New Tool in Crime Detection and Deterrence LOWELL, MA (November 13, 2013) Lowell Police will be rolling out a new tool to help combat crime and disorder in our city. A Lowell Police van that has been refurbished is now equipped with video surveillance capabilities. The cameras will be obvious to an observer and the van will be clearly marked as belonging to the Lowell Police along with its surveillance capabilities. These cameras will allow for the recording of incidents in close proximity of the van even in low light conditions. Records of those legally obtained recording will be maintained and if needed will be used for the identification and prosecution of individuals involved in illegal activity. This van will be clearly marked as such in hopes that it will also have a deterrent effect on any crime or disorder in or around its stationed location in the city. The first roll out of this new tool will be in an undisclosed location in the city this weekend
Source lowell2020.wordpress.com
Thermal Video Captures 17 Crossing Border In California
General Dynamics to supply thermal imaging cameras to Border Patrol to spot ultra-light aircraft Tue, 2013-11-05 03:15 PM By: Jacob Goodwin CBP has awarded a contract worth more than $67,000 to General Dynamics Global Imaging Technologies, Inc. to supply its Z-500 long-range thermal imaging cameras for the U.S. Border Patrol to use at its Calexico Station in California to spot criminal organizations crossing the border in ultra-light aircraft.
Digital Ally Receives Order From Evansville, Indiana Police Department For 150 FirstVU HD Body Cameras
(businesspress24) – LENEXA, KS — (Marketwired) — 11/12/13 — Digital Ally, Inc. (NASDAQ: DGLY), which develops, manufactures and markets advanced video surveillance products for law enforcement, homeland security and commercial applications, today announced the receipt of its largest single order for the body camera, which was introduced to the market in the third quarter of 2013. The order, from the Evansville, Indiana police department, will be shipped in the current quarter. The Evansville police department evaluated all of the major body cameras on the market during a 60-day testing period before selecting Digital Ally’s FirstVU HD for its officers. Testing included evaluation of product durability, versatility, ease of use, battery life, video and sound quality, upload and download speeds, and the data storage requirements for a typical officer’s daily shift. “We have sold over 350 FirstVU HD units, including the Evansville order, since the new body camera was officially launched in July 2013, and the FirstVU HD is being tested and evaluated against competitive products by over 150 law enforcement agencies,” stated Stanton E. Ross, Chief Executive Officer of Digital Ally, Inc. “These test and evaluation programs are typically one to three months in duration, and based on an analysis of completed test and evaluation programs, our FirstVU HD has emerged as the top-rated system by a clear majority of the agencies performing the evaluations. We have averaged approximately 20 new police agencies initiating test and evaluation programs per week, with active and completed test and evaluation projects representing […]
Source www.businesspress24.com
The Future Of Body-Worn Cameras For Law Enforcement
Email Print Comment RSS TechBeat with the Office of Justice Programs’ National Institute of Justice (NIJ) By Michele Coppola Tech Beat Magazine In recent years law enforcement agencies have been experimenting with and using body-worn video cameras. How future cameras can be improved to further officer safety and effectiveness was among the topics discussed at a technology institute sponsored by the Office of Justice Programs’ National Institute of Justice (NIJ). Proponents of body-worn cameras say they protect officers from false accusations, reduce agency liability and citizen complaints, and provide evidence for use in court. Unlike vehicle-mounted cameras, the body-worn cameras travel with the officer when he steps away from the patrol car. They can be attached to a shirt pocket, helmet, glasses or badge, and can serve to augment in-car video systems or provide an option to the expensive in-car systems that some departments cannot afford. Capt. Wayne Hoss of the San Mateo Police Department says that while those arguments carry weight, the current technology has limitations. Why not go further and incorporate technology into body-worn cameras that could substantially increase officer safety? Hoss discussed the current state of body-worn cameras and a future vision for the technology at the NIJ 2013 Technology Institute for Law Enforcement. San Mateo, with a population of approximately 98,000, sits about 20 miles south of San Francisco, near Silicon Valley, which is home to numerous established and start-up high-tech companies. The police department has 100 sworn officers. Hoss says the proximity to the […]
Source www.policeone.com
AngelTrax Announces VizuCop ? Innovative In-Car Video Surveillance Solutions
Email Print Register Bookmark RSS What’s This Newton, Ala. – October, 2013 – AngelTrax , the rapidly growing, leading supplier of in-vehicle digital video surveillance technology, today announced a new brand – VizuCop , featuring rugged, in-car mobile surveillance solutions engineered exclusively for the law enforcement industry. The first system to be released – VizuCop 360 – features a patented front-facing, dual lens camera that eliminates the need for manual zooming for clear license plate capture, up to eight HD quality video and audio channels, a solid-state 256GB SATA hard drive or a 128GB SD card and a space saving, LCD rearview mirror monitor. “Entering into the police market was the next logical step for AngelTrax,” said Richie Howard, President of AngelTrax. “We’ve been quietly working on our in-car police system for the last five years and are now proud to release it to the market.” The VizuCop 360 system will be released January 1, 2014. Customers can initially choose from two versions of the system – a 256GB solid-state hard drive version or a 128GB SD card version. The VizuCop 360 system will be introduced publicly for the first time at the IACP Expo, October 20, 2013 in Philadelphia, Pa. AngelTrax executives and engineers worked closely with law enforcement agencies across the country to create an officer-friendly in-car system that would withstand the harsh, oftentimes dangerous environment inherent of police work. Designed to complement standard law-enforcement procedures while meeting the specialized needs of officers in the field, the […]
Source www.policeone.com
Spring Lake Car Theft Investigated; Cops Ask Residents For Video Footage
SPRING LAKE — Borough police are investigating car burglaries and a car theft this week, and they want residents with security camera systems to check for video footage of suspicious activity this week. Police say there were a number of thefts from motor vehicles
Making Video Verified Response a Priority
What is Priority Response? Video-verified alarms have only been on the mainstream market for a handful of years. After they started showing up more frequently a few years ago, law enforcement began to see how unique and beneficial they really were. Officers around the country, such as Dye, decided to get behind Priority Response. Now, […]