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I live in a small resort town where the population in the off season is less than 1000 and during the peak season on major holiday weekends can swell close in t
by jeffmould 11y ago
I live in a small resort town where the population in the off season is less than 1000 and during the peak season on major holiday weekends can swell close in the hundreds of thousands. A few years ago the local police department did this. They didn't use it for enforcing traffic laws or surveillance. Instead they operated as a normal cab, picking up fares, and would eavesdrop on people's conversations in the cab and use the intel they gathered to make arrests. In terms of arrests it did lead to some major drug arrests, but I think the entire program was marred in controversy that they stopped.
- morisy 11y agoMind sharing what town that is?
- jeffmould 11y agoOcean City, Maryland Here is one of the stories about the program: http://oceancitymd.gov/oc/ocean-city-police-undercover-officer-poses-as-cab-driver-nearly-two-year-investigation-leads-to-34-indictments/ http://oceancitymd.gov/oc/ocean-city-police-undercover-offic...
- p4wnc6 11y agoI desperately want someone to parody the montage sequence from The Departed showing Matt Damon double-agenting his way through police academy and Leonardo DiCaprio double-agenting his way through mafia initiation, except this time showing a cop double-agenting as a cab driver ... talking about stuff passengers don't want to hear, receiving calls constantly on a hands-free device, intentionally taking the long way if the customer looks like a tourist... with some sick Dropkick Murphys in the background.
- AdmiralAsshat 11y agoI'll remember the next time I take a cab in Ocean City to discuss with the cab driver how much everyone hates cops.
- astrodust 11y agoIt's sad that a lot of these programs are created explicitly to curtail illegal drug trade. Following Portugal's model of legalization would make this kind of invasive policing almost irrelevant.