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The gravity of this isn't captured at all by the article/presentation. Many of these planes simply capture high resolution panorama timelapses of a large porti
by avidiax 4y ago
The gravity of this isn't captured at all by the article/presentation.
Many of these planes simply capture high resolution panorama timelapses of a large portion of the city.
The police can then wait for a crime to happen (e.g. a burglary), and then if they have coverage of the time, they can just play their timelapse in reverse to figure out where the vehicles involved came from or went.
Then, they use "parallel construction" to erase the fact that they used persistent mass surveillance to catch the criminals. They already know whodunit, so it's just a matter of coming up with a "lucky break" or an "anonymous tip" or whatever to explain how they caught someone, without ever exposing the surveillance to the scrutiny of the court.
- powera 4y agoIn what sense is it a bad thing that the government can see who drove to the scene of a crime? Especially when, to prevent abuse or mistakes, that isn't sufficient on its own to justify police action?
- sejje 4y agoBecause the government also decides what are crimes.
- avidiax 4y agoThere are two parts to this. First, what is the ideal amount of crime? It's not zero. Zero-crime is a police state. The people must have some power to inflict damage on the government and elements of society. I think it would be rather difficult to conduct the civil rights movement today. Monitoring protests and targeting not just the leaders but even the participants is just too easy now. Second, parallel construction is the most corrosive concept to ever enter US law enforcement. It completely runs around the "fruit of the poisonous tree" doctrine. When the DEA gets a tip-off from the NSA, that obviously illegal abuse of power never gets a debate in a court-room, because a "routine police stop" lucked upon the evidence.
- generalizations 4y agoThere was an investigative article from years ago that I recall said exactly what you're describing, complete with images from the planes demoing the ability to track suspects. Wish I could remember a way to dig that up now.
- stordoff 4y agoPossibly PBS - Rise of the Drones[1] about ARGUS-IS[2]? [1] https://youtu.be/HL4WjhSy5Kc?t=1890 https://youtu.be/HL4WjhSy5Kc?t=1890 [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ARGUS-IS https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ARGUS-IS
- omitit 4y agohttp://www.bloomberg.com/features/2016-baltimore-secret-surveillance/ http://www.bloomberg.com/features/2016-baltimore-secret-surv...
- generalizations 4y agoYep, that's the one.
- specialist 4y ago> they can just play their timelapse in reverse Similarly, with the combo of demographic and location databases, they can rule out everyone with an alibi.
- dclusin 4y agoIs this from actual investigative reporting with sources or just assumed from theoretical capability of tech? Not trying to say this isn’t happening. Just saying that what’s possible and what’s happening don’t always match up.
- zoklet-enjoyer 4y agoParallel construction is a real thing. I would be surprised if this wasn't happening with FBI planes. https://www.techdirt.com/2014/02/03/parallel-construction-revealed-how-dea-is-trained-to-launder-classified-surveillance-info/ https://www.techdirt.com/2014/02/03/parallel-construction-re...
- omitit 4y agohttp://www.bloomberg.com/features/2016-baltimore-secret-surveillance/ http://www.bloomberg.com/features/2016-baltimore-secret-surv...
- woodruffw 4y agoThat's a pretty complicated explanation, given that (1) every major city PD already makes ample use of street-level CCTV footage, and (2) it involves local-federal cooperation (the FBI is seemingly the ones flying these planes). If we're speculating baselessly, my guess would be that, like all cops, the FBI has a bloated surveillance budget and loves trinkets. Why waste shoe leather or sit in a car for hours when you can justify a joy ride in a plane while you watch the bad guys?
- culi 4y agoI don't know why this is being talked about like it's just speculation. This technology is publicly known. RadioLab even did an episode on it a few years ago: https://radiolab.org/episodes/eye-sky https://radiolab.org/episodes/eye-sky
- jjtheblunt 4y agothat sounds very expensive to do, doesn't it?
- asciimov 4y agoHardly, 6-12 off the shelf digital cameras with lenses, a single engine airplane with fuel, and a laptop is all you need for this kind of system.
- amazon_illegal 4y ago[dead]
- solarkraft 4y agoI knew this is a thing, but thought it was primarily done in war/conflict zones (though some would probably describe US cities as such).