Archive for the 'Police State' Category
How Police Departments Use Civil Forfeiture to Collect Billions
March 15th, 2017Whenever you hear about tips to the police from confidential informants or “concerned citizens,” etc. keep this in mind: U.S. Communications Intelligence Secretly Shared with Law Enforcement for Use Against Americans in Criminal Investigations. So, mass surveillance and civil forfeiture: Is there a link? “It is the height of naivete to think that once collected […]
NSA Routinely Monitors Americans’ Communications Without Warrants
March 15th, 2017Are They building electronic dossiers on as many of us as they can? I don’t know, but it sure looks that way. —Cryptogon, 2007: NSA, AT&T and the NarusInsight Intercept Suite In Open Thread: Trump Wiretap Claims, I wrote: Where is the uproar over the spook’s data center in Utah? Man, if you think that […]
FBI Undercover Stings Foil Terrorist Plots — That It Creates
March 12th, 2017Via: Kansas City Star: Announcements of foiled terrorist plots make for lurid reading. Schemes to carry out a Presidents Day jihadist attack on a train station in Kansas City. Bomb a Sept. 11 memorial event. Blow up a 1,000-pound bomb at Fort Riley. Detonate a weapon of mass destruction at a Wichita airport — the […]
FBI Used Best Buy’s Geek Squad To Increase Secret Public Surveillance
March 11th, 2017Via: OC Weekly: Recently unsealed records reveal a much more extensive secret relationship than previously known between the FBI and Best Buy’s Geek Squad, including evidence the agency trained company technicians on law-enforcement operational tactics, shared lists of targeted citizens and, to covertly increase surveillance of the public, encouraged searches of computers even when unrelated […]
‘Crime-Fighting Robots Aid Police’
March 10th, 2017Via: Star Telegram: Maybe someday it will menacingly order citizens to drop their weapons — or else, a la Robocop. But for now, the Knightscope crime-fighting robots, demonstrated for the University of Texas at Arlington Police Department and the media on Thursday, are limited to less aggressive tasks like scanning license plates for unauthorized vehicles […]
TSA Warns Local Police About Its New Airport Pat-Downs
March 6th, 2017Via: Bloomberg: The U.S. Transportation Security Administration has declined to say exactly where—and how—employees will be touching air travelers as part of the more invasive physical pat-down procedure it recently ordered. The most important business stories of the day. But the agency does expect some passengers to consider the examination unusual. In fact, the TSA […]
U.S. Airport Pat-Downs Are About to Get More Invasive
March 4th, 2017Via: Bloomberg: While few have noticed, U.S. airport security workers long had the option of using five different types of physical pat-downs at the screening line. Now those options have been eliminated and replaced with a single universal approach. This time, you will notice. The new physical touching—for those selected to have a pat-down—will be […]
DHS Quietly Testing Mandatory Facial Recognition of Passengers *Exiting* U.S.
February 27th, 2017Via: Professional Troublemaker: We’re all used to having to identify ourselves as we enter a country. It is the only way we can hope to have any attempt at a secure border. But, so-called “exit controls,” where documents are checked as travelers are leaving the country, were popularized last century by Nazi Germany as a […]
Cameras, Microphones and Sensors on 3,200 Street Lights in San Diego
February 27th, 2017Via: Reuters: General Electric will put cameras, microphones and sensors on 3,200 street lights in San Diego this year, marking the first large-scale use of “smart city” tools GE says can help monitor traffic and pinpoint crime, but raising potential privacy concerns. Based on technology from GE’s Current division, Intel Corp and AT&T Inc, the […]
Private Prisons Back In Mix For Federal Inmates
February 23rd, 2017Via: NPR: New Attorney General Jeff Sessions is rescinding an Obama-era memo that directed the Justice Department to reduce the use of private prisons, NPR’s Carrie Johnson reports Sessions writes in the order that returning to the Bureau of Prisons’ earlier approach would provide flexibility. “The memorandum changed long-standing policy and practice, and impaired the […]
