Archive for the 'Police State' Category
Iris Scanner Identifies a Person 40 Feet Away
April 18th, 2015Via: Discovery: The CMU team recently posted a video successfully testing the system in a typical traffic stop scenario. Using the long-range iris scanner, the system was able to identify the driver of a vehicle by capturing an image of the eye via the side-view mirror.
Baltimore Police Used Stingray Systems to Track Cellphones in Thousands of Cases
April 9th, 2015Via: Baltimore Sun: The Baltimore Police Department has used an invasive and controversial cellphone tracking device thousands of times in recent years while following instructions from the FBI to withhold information about it from prosecutors and judges, a detective revealed in court testimony Wednesday. The testimony shows for the first time how frequently city police […]
Indian Police to Use Pepper-Spraying Drones on Unruly Protesters
April 9th, 2015Via: AFP: Police in a northern Indian city said Tuesday they have a new weapon for controlling unruly protesters in the world’s largest democracy: pepper-spraying drones. Yashasvi Yadav, police chief of Lucknow, said his officers have successfully test-flown the newly purchased drones with a view to better crowd control. “The results were brilliant. We have […]
U.S. Police Killed More People in March Than UK Police Did in 20th Century
April 9th, 2015Via: Russia Today:
Human Rights Watch Sues DEA Over Bulk Collection of Americans’ Telephone Records
April 8th, 2015Via: EFF: Human Rights Watch, a nonpartisan organization that fights human rights abuses across the globe, filed suit against the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration late Tuesday for illegally collecting records of its telephone calls to certain foreign countries as part of yet another government bulk surveillance program. The group is represented by the Electronic Frontier […]
Britain: Investigation Into Claims Metropolitan Police Covered Up Child Sex Offenses Because of Involvement of Police Officers and MPs
March 16th, 2015Via: BBC: The police watchdog is investigating alleged corruption in the Metropolitan Police, including claims it covered up child sex offences because of the involvement of police officers and MPs. The Independent Police Complaints Commission is investigating 14 referrals relating to child sex offences from the 1970s to the 2000s. It said the claims were […]
The CIA Helped Develop Planes that Scrape Cell Phone Data
March 10th, 2015Via: The Verge: The US may be using cellphone-sniffing planes to find suspects across the world, according to a new report from The Wall Street Journal. In November, the Journal revealed the US Marshal’s secret program to locate specific fugitive through airplane equipped to mimic cell towers. Flying over an urban area, the planes can […]
The Disappeared: Chicago Police Detain Americans at Abuse-Laden ‘Black Site’
February 25th, 2015Via: Guardian: The Chicago police department operates an off-the-books interrogation compound, rendering Americans unable to be found by family or attorneys while locked inside what lawyers say is the domestic equivalent of a CIA black site. The facility, a nondescript warehouse on Chicago’s west side known as Homan Square, has long been the scene of […]
Plea Deals Rather Than Talking About StingRay
February 23rd, 2015Via: Washington Post: McKenzie’s case is emblematic of the growing, but hidden, use by local law enforcement of a sophisticated surveillance technology borrowed from the national security world. It shows how a gag order imposed by the FBI — on grounds that discussing the device’s operation would compromise its effectiveness — has left judges, the […]
Prisoner in South Carolina Sentenced to 37 Years in Isolation for Using Facebook
February 18th, 2015Via: EFF: In the South Carolina prison system, accessing Facebook is an offense on par with murder, rape, rioting, escape and hostage-taking. Back in 2012, the South Carolina Department of Corrections (SCDC) made “Creating and/or Assisting With A Social Networking Site” a Level 1 offense [PDF], a category reserved for the most violent violations of […]
