7 ms·

Phone Cameras and Apps Help Speed Calls for Police Reform

58 points by carlchenet 12y ago

MichaelCrawford 12y ago
I have a different take on the police. I can't go into a whole lot of detail as it is late, I am tired and I have lots of work to do. But more or less I point out to every cop I come across, that while I do know that there are some bad cops, there are bad people everywhere. It is wrong to hate the police despite that there have been lots of officers who have murdered innocent, defenseless people. I don't judge individuals by the behaviors of other people. Recall what MLK said about "the content of our character". For me, I don't judge someone by the color of their clothes or whether they have a shiny badge affixed to them. I then point out that I have quite a profoundly serious illness: Bipolar-Type Schizoaffective Disorder, and that it is much like being Manic-Depressive and Schizophrenic at the same time. Being crazy gives me lots of real-world experience with law enforcement. Consider that I was once hospitalized involuntarily for ten solid days because I told some shrink that I planned to "go camping in the desert". See, I was completely unaware that in Reno, when one intends to "go camping in the desert", one intends to commit suicide. It didn't help to point out that I had the Boy Scout Wilderness Survival Merit Badge, nor that I had camped in the desert just the night before. I was once beaten unconscious by two cops by having my skull slammed repeatedly into concrete. When I regained consciousness three days later, while I could correctly visualize the spelling of my own name when I thought about it, I was incapable of spelling it when I attempted to write it on paper with a pencil. You'd think that would make me hate all police officers but no, I don't even hate the two cops who assaulted me with a deadly weapon. However, I do feel that they should be spending some time behind bars. On the other hand there have been plenty of times that police officers have saved my very life. The ONLY time I ever saw a cop so much as set foot on the Caltech campus was when a Pasadena Police Department officer came to save me from the Caltech campus security guards who beat the living crap out of me then hurled me bodily down a flight of stairs. Finally I write down the URL for "Living with Schizoaffective Disorder" then point out that "I wrote it in part to help people like you help people like me". http://www.warplife.com/mdc/books/schizoaffective-disorder/ http://www.warplife.com/mdc/books/schizoaffective-disorder/ Finally, I offer to shake their hand. Cops aren't used to members of the public offering to shake their hand. Quite commonly they are visibly moved by my simple gesture.
- tormeh 12y ago
  Certainly, but it also seems like some local police departments have institutionalized misconduct. And I don't think it's totally unreasonable to to expect cops to be significantly better than average people.
  - MichaelCrawford 12y ago
    That is quite definitely the case. In Portland, a total of four PPB officers murdered two mentally ill men in cold blood. They were not prosecuted; the grand jury and PPB internal affairs cleared them. The family of one of the victims sued and won $2M. I don't clearly recall whether it was a jury verdict or a settlement. In the other case I don't think there was a lawsuit however the federal government found that the PPB wasn't properly trained to deal with the mentally ill. My own more-recent experience that the PPB is quite good, for example I'd see someone going totally bananas at the Portland Rescue Mission and the cops would show right up, then be completely reasonable, pleasant and polite. On the other hand, the Santa Cruz Police Department is quite oppressive to the homeless and mentally ill. That led to the Occupy Santa Cruz movement raising quite a lot of Hell, but with the eventual result that things got quite a lot better for the homeless and quite a lot worse for the cops. edit: s/better/worse/ I hasten to point out that the vast majority of police officers and sheriff's deputies, I expect FBI agents as well, hate bad cops with a passion. The problem is "The Thin Blue Line"; their culture forbids them criticizing their fellow officers. But they are quick to criticize bad cops in other jurisdictions. Thus when I told a Reno deputy about the OHSU campus cops who beat me up, he got furiously angry, wanted to help me bring them to justice, but I - politely - refused his offer. He has a lot of work to do, I want to take care of that myself
    - tormeh 12y ago
      Why then aren't suspected misconduct in police force A investigated by internal affairs of police force B in a random other jurisdiction?
      - MichaelCrawford 12y ago
nl 12y ago
I was always doubtful about David Brin's views on privacy and surveillance[1], mostly because I didn't want it to be true. But I'm increasingly coming around to think that it might make sense to explore his model more. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Transparent_Society http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Transparent_Society
- TeMPOraL 12y ago
  I haven't read the book yet (planning to), but there is this thought I keep thinking about and I've mentioned here a few times, that our choice might be that between privacy and continued progress humanity. There are great benefits to the same technologies that "enable mass surveillance", and I feel this angle is underexplored. (And yes, every time I mention this I secretly hope someone will argue with me, explaining the reasons to fight for so strong privacy we enjoy now (relatively to all the history of humanity) that are different than just belief in the privacy as a basic human right - an axiom which I don't really recognize).
  - pyre 12y ago
    > relatively to all the history of humanity I'm curious how you think that privacy is stronger now than any other time in history? While the "small town" / "small group" effect was definitely present in the past, if you ran afoul of said group, you could always leave it (and the stigma) behind. Now the Internet allows people to inspect your history wherever you go. It becomes inescapable. This is something that has never existed in the past (aside from becoming so super-infamous that news travels between disparate groups, I guess).
    - TeMPOraL 12y ago
      I meant the "small group" effect. I agree it's more difficult than ever to start over after you fall out with your group, but an ordinary person living ordinary, conforming life enjoys more privacy and more expectation of privacy than before.
    - pyrois 12y ago
      I'm not sure how easily one could leave a small town in, say, feudal Europe. Most serfs lacked travel rights, and while one could escape from their lord's land and move to a city (depending on the country), the cost was prohibitively high[0]. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serfdom#Villeins https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serfdom#Villeins
MichaelCrawford 12y ago
I've been puzzling over a Killer App for a little while, but just don't have the headspace to deal with it. Take The Money And Run: Write a mobile app - or maybe crowdfund a gadget - that would be an always on video camera, or perhaps just an audio recorder with a sometimes- but not always-on camera. This would be done in such a way that it is simply not possible to erase the recording, not even if law enforcement confiscates your device. The most-straightforward way would be to upload it to a server however law enforcement could take your entire server, or block access to it &c. Worse who ever operated the server could be subject to prosecution, say for enabling wiretapping. Yes, I know. :-/ However a solution would be for that server to be a Tor Hidden Service. That would make it difficult, maybe impossible to physically locate the server or its admins; it would also make it more difficult to block the communication between the recorder and the server. Commonly overlooked is that it's not enough simply to operate a hidden service; if someone does grab the actual box, then they've got your filesystem. For this to really work you need a fully-encrypted disk. But then you have the problem that the OS as well as the hidden service require private keys. If you store them right on the box then you lose. Possibly Trusted Computing would help somewhat. However another way would be for, when the OS boots, it cries out for help in some surreptitious way, say by posting a racy JPEG on imgur. When an admit sees that JPEG show up on Reddit, then he transmits the secret keys to the server. There is also the problem that, were these recorders always on, then they would record things that anyone would want to be private. Typically we would want whoever possessed the device to choose which recordings to release to the public; however if they were required to do so under a subpeona, again we lose. So there should be more than one person making the decision. Whoever has a legimate reason to want privacy, as well as someone who can deny a subpeona with complete safety, in principle the server admin. This outline doesn't scale at all well. I've been puzzling over it for a little while and I can see that it could be made to scale. But this is the very first time I've written down any of these ideas. If you can make something of this, More Power To You.
- glomph 12y ago
  Uploading that much video / audio via tor wouldn't really be feasible with the current infrastructure.

58 points by carlchenet 12y ago

I have a different take on the police. I can't go into a whole lot of detail as it is late, I am tired and I have lots of work to do. But more or less I point out to every cop I come across, that while I do know that there are some bad cops, there are bad people everywhere. It is wrong to hate the police despite that there have been lots of officers who have murdered innocent, defenseless people. I don't judge individuals by the behaviors of other people. Recall what MLK said about "the content of our character". For me, I don't judge someone by the color of their clothes or whether they have a shiny badge affixed to them. I then point out that I have quite a profoundly serious illness: Bipolar-Type Schizoaffective Disorder, and that it is much like being Manic-Depressive and Schizophrenic at the same time. Being crazy gives me lots of real-world experience with law enforcement. Consider that I was once hospitalized involuntarily for ten solid days because I told some shrink that I planned to "go camping in the desert". See, I was completely unaware that in Reno, when one intends to "go camping in the desert", one intends to commit suicide. It didn't help to point out that I had the Boy Scout Wilderness Survival Merit Badge, nor that I had camped in the desert just the night before. I was once beaten unconscious by two cops by having my skull slammed repeatedly into concrete. When I regained consciousness three days later, while I could correctly visualize the spelling of my own name when I thought about it, I was incapable of spelling it when I attempted to write it on paper with a pencil. You'd think that would make me hate all police officers but no, I don't even hate the two cops who assaulted me with a deadly weapon. However, I do feel that they should be spending some time behind bars. On the other hand there have been plenty of times that police officers have saved my very life. The ONLY time I ever saw a cop so much as set foot on the Caltech campus was when a Pasadena Police Department officer came to save me from the Caltech campus security guards who beat the living crap out of me then hurled me bodily down a flight of stairs. Finally I write down the URL for "Living with Schizoaffective Disorder" then point out that "I wrote it in part to help people like you help people like me". http://www.warplife.com/mdc/books/schizoaffective-disorder/ http://www.warplife.com/mdc/books/schizoaffective-disorder/ Finally, I offer to shake their hand. Cops aren't used to members of the public offering to shake their hand. Quite commonly they are visibly moved by my simple gesture.

tormeh 12y ago
Certainly, but it also seems like some local police departments have institutionalized misconduct. And I don't think it's totally unreasonable to to expect cops to be significantly better than average people.
- MichaelCrawford 12y ago
  That is quite definitely the case. In Portland, a total of four PPB officers murdered two mentally ill men in cold blood. They were not prosecuted; the grand jury and PPB internal affairs cleared them. The family of one of the victims sued and won $2M. I don't clearly recall whether it was a jury verdict or a settlement. In the other case I don't think there was a lawsuit however the federal government found that the PPB wasn't properly trained to deal with the mentally ill. My own more-recent experience that the PPB is quite good, for example I'd see someone going totally bananas at the Portland Rescue Mission and the cops would show right up, then be completely reasonable, pleasant and polite. On the other hand, the Santa Cruz Police Department is quite oppressive to the homeless and mentally ill. That led to the Occupy Santa Cruz movement raising quite a lot of Hell, but with the eventual result that things got quite a lot better for the homeless and quite a lot worse for the cops. edit: s/better/worse/ I hasten to point out that the vast majority of police officers and sheriff's deputies, I expect FBI agents as well, hate bad cops with a passion. The problem is "The Thin Blue Line"; their culture forbids them criticizing their fellow officers. But they are quick to criticize bad cops in other jurisdictions. Thus when I told a Reno deputy about the OHSU campus cops who beat me up, he got furiously angry, wanted to help me bring them to justice, but I - politely - refused his offer. He has a lot of work to do, I want to take care of that myself
  - tormeh 12y ago
    Why then aren't suspected misconduct in police force A investigated by internal affairs of police force B in a random other jurisdiction?
    - MichaelCrawford 12y ago

nl 12y ago

I was always doubtful about David Brin's views on privacy and surveillance[1], mostly because I didn't want it to be true. But I'm increasingly coming around to think that it might make sense to explore his model more. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Transparent_Society http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Transparent_Society

TeMPOraL 12y ago
I haven't read the book yet (planning to), but there is this thought I keep thinking about and I've mentioned here a few times, that our choice might be that between privacy and continued progress humanity. There are great benefits to the same technologies that "enable mass surveillance", and I feel this angle is underexplored. (And yes, every time I mention this I secretly hope someone will argue with me, explaining the reasons to fight for so strong privacy we enjoy now (relatively to all the history of humanity) that are different than just belief in the privacy as a basic human right - an axiom which I don't really recognize).
- pyre 12y ago
  > relatively to all the history of humanity I'm curious how you think that privacy is stronger now than any other time in history? While the "small town" / "small group" effect was definitely present in the past, if you ran afoul of said group, you could always leave it (and the stigma) behind. Now the Internet allows people to inspect your history wherever you go. It becomes inescapable. This is something that has never existed in the past (aside from becoming so super-infamous that news travels between disparate groups, I guess).
  - TeMPOraL 12y ago
    I meant the "small group" effect. I agree it's more difficult than ever to start over after you fall out with your group, but an ordinary person living ordinary, conforming life enjoys more privacy and more expectation of privacy than before.
  - pyrois 12y ago
    I'm not sure how easily one could leave a small town in, say, feudal Europe. Most serfs lacked travel rights, and while one could escape from their lord's land and move to a city (depending on the country), the cost was prohibitively high[0]. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serfdom#Villeins https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serfdom#Villeins

MichaelCrawford 12y ago

I've been puzzling over a Killer App for a little while, but just don't have the headspace to deal with it. Take The Money And Run: Write a mobile app - or maybe crowdfund a gadget - that would be an always on video camera, or perhaps just an audio recorder with a sometimes- but not always-on camera. This would be done in such a way that it is simply not possible to erase the recording, not even if law enforcement confiscates your device. The most-straightforward way would be to upload it to a server however law enforcement could take your entire server, or block access to it &c. Worse who ever operated the server could be subject to prosecution, say for enabling wiretapping. Yes, I know. :-/ However a solution would be for that server to be a Tor Hidden Service. That would make it difficult, maybe impossible to physically locate the server or its admins; it would also make it more difficult to block the communication between the recorder and the server. Commonly overlooked is that it's not enough simply to operate a hidden service; if someone does grab the actual box, then they've got your filesystem. For this to really work you need a fully-encrypted disk. But then you have the problem that the OS as well as the hidden service require private keys. If you store them right on the box then you lose. Possibly Trusted Computing would help somewhat. However another way would be for, when the OS boots, it cries out for help in some surreptitious way, say by posting a racy JPEG on imgur. When an admit sees that JPEG show up on Reddit, then he transmits the secret keys to the server. There is also the problem that, were these recorders always on, then they would record things that anyone would want to be private. Typically we would want whoever possessed the device to choose which recordings to release to the public; however if they were required to do so under a subpeona, again we lose. So there should be more than one person making the decision. Whoever has a legimate reason to want privacy, as well as someone who can deny a subpeona with complete safety, in principle the server admin. This outline doesn't scale at all well. I've been puzzling over it for a little while and I can see that it could be made to scale. But this is the very first time I've written down any of these ideas. If you can make something of this, More Power To You.

glomph 12y ago
Uploading that much video / audio via tor wouldn't really be feasible with the current infrastructure.