Boston Cops Outraged Over Plans to Watch Their Movements Using GPS 409
Hugh Pickens DOT Com writes "The Boston Globe reports that the pending use of GPS tracking devices, slated to be installed in Boston police cruisers, has many officers worried that commanders will monitor their every move. Boston police administrators say the system gives dispatchers the ability to see where officers are, rather than wait for a radio response and supervisors insist the system will improve their response to emergencies. Using GPS, they say, accelerates their response to a call for a shooting or an armed robbery. 'We'll be moving forward as quickly as possible,' says former police commissioner Edward F. Davis. 'There are an enormous amount of benefits. . . . This is clearly an important enhancement and should lead to further reductions in crime.' But some officers said they worry that under such a system they will have to explain their every move and possibly compromise their ability to court street sources. 'No one likes it. Who wants to be followed all over the place?' said one officer who spoke anonymously because department rules forbid police from speaking to the media without authorization. 'If I take my cruiser and I meet [reluctant witnesses] to talk, eventually they can follow me and say why were you in a back dark street for 45 minutes? It's going to open up a can of worms that can't be closed.' Meanwhile civil libertarians are relishing the rank and file's own backlash. 'The irony of police objecting to GPS technology for privacy reasons is hard to miss in the aftermath of United States v. Jones,' says Woodrow Hartzog. 'But the officers' concerns about privacy illustrate just how revealing GPS technology can be. Departments are going to have to confront the chilling effect this surveillance might have on police behavior.'"
Bostonian here (Score:4, Informative)
Meanwhile in Canada (Score:2, Informative)
I work in Law Enforcement in Canada (not a cop) but I can tell you that up here, in my area anyways; we have GPS not only in the cars, but on each officers individual RADIO. Hell even the meter maids have GPS in their radio. Its an officer safety question, when you make an Officer needs assistance call dispatch immediately knows exactly where you are, and everyone else can respond accordingly. I've never heard any officer complain about it.
It has other uses too, for example the bylaw/parking officer can simply call for a tow truck "To my location" and then leave and get on with their day.
Re:Barking up the wrong tree (Score:2, Informative)
The cops aren't the ones repeating that ancient fable.
Wrong. Many cops do. In fact, most people do.
Re:Funny that. (Score:5, Informative)
You mean beyond the GPS trackers that have already been found on civilian cars?
http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2011/11/gps-tracker-times-two/ [wired.com]
citizen (Score:2, Informative)
You maybe mean citizen or something else. Police are not part of the military (yet) and so not able to refer to everyone else as civilians. Don't add to the confusion.
chilling? Good! (Score:5, Informative)
Normally chilling effects are bad, but, I have long felt police behaviour could use a serious chilling effect, maybe even a freezing one.
However, that was always just my feeling, now that there is some data: http://thelibertarianrepublic.com/body-cameras-revolutionizing-police-accountability-video/ [theliberta...public.com]
When police know actions are being recorded, a 60% drop in use of force. Amazing how people's actions change when there is a credible witness.
Re:Funny that. (Score:2, Informative)
You're an order of magnitude off on the amount of tracking that can be pulled off.
Internet activity and account information, IP's involved, moving onto that IP's location and assigned owner(cell towers, WIFI cafe's, other ISP's)
Or how about license plate tracking?
Or how about cell phone tracking? Either from the GPS location, or the cell-tower triangulation, or even the past WIFI locations(if you get a hold of the phone itself, due to security flaws such as on (older, maybe not newer?) iPhone's it recorded all WIFI locations that it saw.
Is it all collated in one location? Not yet(hopefully). But the worst part about all of that, is I'm not even a conspiracy nut (AND) I feel out of my depth all the time while reading other users Slashdot comments.
Apple passive recording WIFI locations(maybe it's fixed?)
http://radar.oreilly.com/2011/04/apple-location-tracking.
License plate scanning
https://www.aclu.org/blog/technology-and-liberty-national-security/police-documents-license-plate-scanners-reveal-mass
Re:They are right. (Score:5, Informative)
Underpaid? They work 20 years and are then effectively made millionaires on the backs of the citizens. How much would you have to put aside to retire at 42 and be guaranteed an inflation adjusted income for the rest of your life? Police officers are very very far from underpaid.
Re:That's kind of the idea. (Score:3, Informative)
School bus drivers don't need to have their shit together?
If there was ever an actual 'think of the children' need, that would be it.
Re:Citizens don't trust cops ... (Score:5, Informative)
The majority of cops are good or try to do good.
Ex-cop here, most are crooked in the way we would think. Most commit felonies on a semi regular basis. This is true in big cities or rich suburbs. People believe that its just a few bad actors, its the entire culture. Thats why I quit after several years. The last of the good cops retired by 2003ish (vietnam war era guys, who were trained by the ww2 guys) and were replaced by insane children with no guidance. They were told their job was Law Enforcement, not policing. Just because you know a cop and he is a good person in your eyes does not mean he does not engage in illegal and immoral behavior, they all do and all know to keep their mouth shut about it. The first rule of law enforcement is not to talk about law enforcement, especially with outsiders. Nothing I see on the news surprises me, it will only get worse until cops start getting put in prison. The only saving grace is the unlimited statute of limitations on homicides, lets hope the political will of future generations will find justice.
Re:That's kind of the idea. (Score:4, Informative)
What do you call a person who takes an oath to protect and serve the public but ignores it when it is a fellow cop causing the problems?
I can tell you this. I do not call them "Good Cops".