Toronto Police Use Facebook Picture in Online Lineup 227
An anonymous reader writes "A 28-year-old woman was recently accused of assault and arrested based on a thumbnail photo from her profile pic on Facebook. Artist Lizz Aston was identified in a lineup after police used a picture from her Facebook profile. From the article: 'In an interview she said, "I told the officer I was at an art opening for a friend, then went home with my boyfriend because he injured his knee. We stayed in for the rest of the night and I did research on the computer for an art installation I was working on. The officer didn't care ... I don't think the police looked into it further." Aston said, the officer "read me my rights. I was searched, finger printed and processed."'"
So what? (Score:2, Interesting)
facial recognition search (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:mistake #1 (Score:4, Interesting)
I can't speak for all countries but in mine at least if you are the first driver to pass an accident scene you are legally obligated to stop, offer help AND (if possible - i.e. you have a cellphone) phone the police. Failing to do so can be charged with aggravated assault if anybody was injured (as you didn't attempt to get them helped).
On the other hand if you're any car AFTER the first you are legally obligated to just drive past and NOT stop (in the interest of not blocking up the scene so emergency personnel can actually get to the victims). Not that I've ever really seen this one enforced...
Re:mistake #1 (Score:5, Interesting)
That having been said, I (and several friends and family members) have been harassed by police mercilessly at times. I've had friends who were Sheriff's Dept, and will testify that some are great guys -- but I have never met a city or sate police officer who was even courteous. Oh, except for one, who (after giving me a ticket for not slowing down quickly enough coming into his town of 500 people) said "Thanks, have a great day!" in a snarky voice.
I have a clean police record (except for breaking curfew when 13, and minor traffic violations), don't have an offensive bumper sticker or anything, wasn't a partier or any nonsense like that (c'mon, I'm on Slashdot), yet at one point, I was pulled over by police 8 times in two months, and given a ticket every time for one thing or another, including a failed headlight at 1am (even though we lived in a small town, where no stores were open at that time, and it had just failed that night -- I worked a night shift, and was on my way home), and a $400 ticket for not having insurance, because I couldn't find the slip fast enough (the cop gave me less than a minute to find it -- and the EXACT SAME OFFICER had pulled me over a week or so previous, so he knew I had insurance). I've been accused of being drunk more than once while on my way home from work, simply because it was 1am and I was a 20-something guy in a car alone.
And my bad experiences don't just extend to traffic incidents. I was walking in the park one day when I saw a cash box laying in the edge of the lake, so I called the police to report it. Before calling them, I walked over to it (didn't touch anything), to make sure it really was a cash box, not a tackle box or something. When they showed up, they accused me of being involved in the theft, then once I had convinced them that I wasn't, I was severely chewed out for the fact I had left footprints near the scene ('disturbed the evidence', even though I stayed about 10 feet away).
Oh, and another time, I was given a $45 ticket for 'uncertainty' (can you believe that's a crime!?!? I don't recall what the 'actual crime' was, but that's why the cop told me he was giving me the ticket.) because I went about 35 in a 45mph construction zone while in Denver, CO, while trying to get to my hotel. At the time, the city traffic made me nervous, as I had only driven in small towns.
So yeah, I think I'm justified in my distrust of the police.