Across US, Police Officers Abuse Confidential Databases (ap.org) 185
Sadie Gurman and Eric Tucker, reporting for Associated Press:Police officers across the country misuse confidential law enforcement databases to get information on romantic partners, business associates, neighbors, journalists and others for reasons that have nothing to do with daily police work, an Associated Press investigation has found. Criminal-history and driver databases give officers critical information about people they encounter on the job. But the AP's review shows how those systems also can be exploited by officers who, motivated by romantic quarrels, personal conflicts or voyeuristic curiosity, sidestep policies and sometimes the law by snooping. In the most egregious cases, officers have used information to stalk or harass, or have tampered with or sold records they obtained. No single agency tracks how often the abuse happens nationwide, and record-keeping inconsistencies make it impossible to know how many violations occur. But the AP, through records requests to state agencies and big-city police departments, found law enforcement officers and employees who misused databases were fired, suspended or resigned more than 325 times between 2013 and 2015. They received reprimands, counseling or lesser discipline in more than 250 instances, the review found.
Wherever data is collected, it is abused (Score:5, Interesting)
Am I just paranoid, or does it seem that everywhere personal data is collected, it is abused?
Re:Wherever data is collected, it is abused (Score:4, Insightful)
Indeed it is, which is why I make a point of adding noise to such databases whenever possible.
Anything I'm not legally required to enter correctly, I could (and often am) just making stuff up. Transpose digits in a number here, get a birthdate wrong there, accidentally mistype a middle initial somewhere else, lie about the name of my first pet, etc.
Better to not let the data be collected in the first place, of course, but increasing the noise level helps a little.
Re: (Score:2)
I did this accidentally once when applying for a new DL.
I didn't get my address quite right and carried that ID around for years with the wrong address. The address was good enough for the mailperson to silently correct but I always wondered what kind of havoc, if any, this caused behind the scenes.... probably none... but I can imagine it...
Re:Wherever data is collected, it is abused (Score:5, Insightful)
probably none...
Probably. 9 Horrifying Botched Police Raids [businessinsider.com]
Re: (Score:2)
costive
adjective
constipated.
slow or reluctant in speech or action; unforthcoming.
"if he did ask her she would become costive"
Comment removed (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Wherever data is collected, it is abused (Score:5, Interesting)
Comment removed (Score:5, Funny)
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
Pretty sure male hookers are also generally looked down upon.
Re: (Score:2, Funny)
Pretty sure male hookers are also generally looked down upon.
Depends on the service(s) you select.
Re: (Score:2)
Perhaps the line to draw is between people who are empowered and in a position to choose whether or not to prostitute, and those who lack better options. It's one thing to say "I can do this thing I enjoy and get paid for it", verses "I have to do this thing whether or not I enjoy it." I guess that applies to most lines of work in a way, but prostitutes can't collect unemplo
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
I'm not going to comment on the issue of prostitution.
But as far as the social stigma or difference between a male that sleeps with many women vs a female with many men: it is much more difficult for a guy to get sex on demand with many women Most men want it, but only the top tier can obtain it. Meanwhile, even an average looking woman could find a different partner every night of the week, should she desire, simply by sitting at the bar.
A key that opens every lock is a master key. A lock that's open
Re:Wherever data is collected, it is abused (Score:5, Interesting)
Your grandmother and her daughters didn't do anything wrong; we all do what we have to do to survive.
As a friend once said to me, "We all have the ethics we can afford." In other words, would I steal food if my family was starving? Damn right I would. I'd lie, cheat, and steal to feed my family.
As for prostitution, personally I don't think it's wrong in any way (unless it's forced). It should be completely legal, and not viewed as immoral or "sinful" or whatever label the authoritarians and bluenoses want to put on it.
Again, your grandmother and her daughters didn't do anything wrong. Your uncle is the shitbag in this scenario, and feel free to piss on his grave for me if you happen to have the chance.
Re: (Score:2)
There are two things wrong with unforced prostitution, but one of them is a matter of taste.
1) Prostitutes frequently spread venereal diseases.
2) Christians and Jews deplore many of the religious practices of the Babylonians.
OTOH, what can one say about Kerista?
Re: (Score:2)
There are two things wrong with unforced prostitution, but one of them is a matter of taste.
1) Prostitutes frequently spread venereal diseases.
That's a matter of hygiene and medicine, not some inherent problem with the practice.
-
2) Christians and Jews deplore many of the religious practices of the Babylonians.
Stop right there. I don't give a flying fuck what Christians and Jews deplore, and the same goes for Muslims, Hindus, Taoists, Buddhists, Sikhs, or any other religion. If they don't like it then they don't have to do it, but that doesn't give them the right to prohibit others from doing it.
Re: (Score:2)
I used to think that as well, but in an Economics study I learned some unfortunate downside to legal prostitution. Unfortunately it seems that if prostitution is legalized, illegal forced prostitution increases. That sucks.
I'm not sure if the solution on balance should be to make prostitution illegal or just increase the resources expended against forced prostitution, but there is a downside I at least didn't know about earlier.
Re: (Score:2)
Not sure what study you're referring to, but years of data from dozens of western countries don't agree (Canada, Australia, Germany, etc).
Re: (Score:2)
I saw the same, making prostitution illegal rarely helps anyone.
I can recall someone discussing something about prostitution being legal and then illegal. It went something like when prostitution was legal the prostitutes would stay put in their "comfort house" or whatever they called it and the police had little trouble with them. There would be the occasional case of a rough customer and the police would have to come out but the prostitutes generally tended to cause no trouble and word of mouth kept the
Re: (Score:2)
I can answer the "why" part: power. Whether it's the busybody down the street, or the DA downtown, making and enforcing laws and mores makes people feel powerful and in control. Many people cannot abide having nobody on whom they can look down in smug superiority. The drug laws were created to "keep them in their place." Which group was "them" has varied over time. With opium, it was the Chinese laborers in the West. With marijuana, it was the Latinos. With crack it was the blacks in LA. The rest are just a
Re: (Score:2)
I used to think that as well, but in an Economics study I learned some unfortunate downside to legal prostitution. Unfortunately it seems that if prostitution is legalized, illegal forced prostitution increases.
What part of "unless it's forced" seemed unclear?
That's a legal problem, it's not the fault of prostitution itself.
Re: (Score:3)
> I literally pissed on the guy's grave when he died
This brings up a counterpoint concerning data collection, though. There are a few graves I would like to piss on but I cannot find out where these people are buried.
Re: (Score:2)
Re:Wherever data is collected, it is abused (Score:4, Interesting)
There are a few graves I would like to piss on but I cannot find out where these people are buried.
While doing some genealogy research, I discovered the Billion Graves Project [billiongraves.com] where I found a crystal clear 1600x1200 JPG of my grandparents' headstone. They have volunteers who go around taking pictures of all the headstones in a cemetery, then they're indexed online. In many cases, the exact location of the gravesite within the cemetery will be displayed on a map. Worth a look.
Re: (Score:2)
I have no idea why you're so angry your grandmother was a prostitute, and even less for someone informing you on your own family history. Wallow in angry or shed the stigma. Maybe prostitution was the only viable way to get by then. Who knows. Why not get learn more about why your family had a mixed past instead of being ashamed of them.
Pretty much every original protestant was a sinner against god and land for moral / religious grounds back in the day and now they're largely respected for their stand on wh
Re: (Score:3)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
>Bastardy is still a thing and will be forever.
Now you've got me wondering - was bastardy actually an issue in cultures where inheritance was passed down the matriarchal line rather than the patriarchal one? I mean it seems that the entire point of formal recognition of bastardy versus "legitimate" children was recognizing that people slept around, but inheritances needed to go to the "right" children.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Comment removed (Score:4, Informative)
Re: (Score:2)
Re:Wherever data is collected, it is abused (Score:5, Insightful)
Am I just paranoid, or does it seem that everywhere personal data is collected, it is abused?
You are not paranoid. Neither were the framers of the U.S. Constitution who built in protections against such abuse. Alas, irrational fear on the part of those elected by, and who then swore to defend the rights of, the citizens, have been steadily chipping away at those protections. The terrorists have won.
Re: (Score:2)
You're getting the blame wrong.
Politicians have rational fears. If they help loosen some unproductive security measure, and something bad happens that can be blamed on the lack of the security measure, their opponents will use that as campaign material, and they're less likely to be elected. If they enact an unproductive security measure, they're not going to get the same level of blame.
The problem is the US electorate. If politicians got credit for removing or not adding onerous and unproductive se
I'm shocked! (Score:5, Insightful)
Power without oversight is being abused? For real? That must be a first in human history!
Re: (Score:2)
Unfortunately, it seems to usually be "some cops", rather than the specific cops actually responsible for abusing their position. Which accomplishes little beyond exacerbating their "us versus them" mentality.
Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2)
He will still take the cookies. .
Put that kid on a timeout once and 99% of the kids will stop stealing cookies.
I don't understand that at all. So the kid gets the cookie, eats the cookie, and is punished by sitting for 10 minutes enjoying the cookie remnants still in his teeth.
Re: (Score:2)
True for most "confidential" databases (Score:3)
Re: (Score:2)
And it's worth noting that it's pretty cheap to get access to a crapload of those databases at once through one crappy web search, and all you need is a business license. Whee! You do have to promise not to misuse the results, but [obviously] nothing technical prevents them from storing and perhaps reselling your data, or misusing it in any other way you can imagine.
Re: (Score:2)
"FBI asks computer shops to help fight cybercrime" (February 5, 2004)
http://the.honoluluadvertiser.... [honoluluadvertiser.com]
The extension of such visits and talks with staff could be carried over nation wide into the digital cloud. Just scan the files? Add very easy to use federal file scanner as new hardware? An NGO/private sector file scanner on all readable data uploaded?
Maybe state and city law enforcement or federally funded state task forces asked the same of any data
Re: (Score:2)
Last I was told, Dropbox encrypted everything with AES-256 and kept the keys organizationally separate from access to the data. It isn't perfect for security, but it's easy and has some value. If you want real security, you have to do your own key management anyway, and you DON'T want to type your key into any software provided by a storage vendor, so it's no extra burden to do your own encryption and decryption.
Look to Healthcare (Score:5, Insightful)
I work at a hospital. We audit people's access to medical records. You can be, and people have been, fired for looking at their own medical record or the medical records of their minor children when that access was made in a way that does not directly relate to their job. You are required to ask for the information the same as any other patient.
If only we could spread that kind of accountability and auditing...
Re: (Score:2)
I work at a hospital. We audit people's access to medical records. You can be, and people have been, fired for looking at their own medical record or the medical records of their minor children when that access was made in a way that does not directly relate to their job. You are required to ask for the information the same as any other patient.
If only we could spread that kind of accountability and auditing...
Quoting to aid visibility.
Simple fix, just requires money (Score:5, Interesting)
The solution is pretty simple, but often skipped:
1) The reason for every search should be required and logged by the searcher. Example: "Related to case 12345, this person was a close match to the suspect description given by clerk at robbed market, who was interviewed by officer 84923 on Aug 7th." (In practice short-cut lingo can be used to reduce typing.)
2) The logs be randomly spot-checked by an auditor(s) who verifies the reasons given by interviewing the person(s) who searched.
3) The depth of the investigation will vary such that some will be pretty thorough. (Not every spot-check can be deep, but make enough deep to keep users on their toes.)
4) Those who've failed past audits or enter poor records are audited more often.
This won't catch every violation, but greatly reduces it because the search-user doesn't know which search will be audited and how deep the audit will be.
The reason this is not implemented is that governments and/or tax-payers don't want to pay for logging features and auditors.
Re:Simple fix, just requires money [clarification] (Score:2)
Clarification:
Re: "The logs be randomly spot-checked by an auditor(s) who verifies the reasons given by interviewing the person(s) who searched."
Rewrite: "The logs be randomly spot-checked by an auditor(s) who verifies the reasons given by checking existing records, and interviewing the person(s) who searched if any discrepancies or gaps are found."
Re: (Score:3)
Re: (Score:2)
Well, I'd suggest a better system. It's still two tiered access (MANDATORY to reduce abuse), but a little more flexible. This is obviously a spit-ball solution with lots unverifiable of gaps.
A: Regular access. The request is sent to dispatch with a request for information and a small snippet of information of why the request is prescient now. If used through a device (license plate scanner?), the brief summary of the owner and 'risk factor' can be returned without any second tier access. If more information
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
I dated a girl who looked up my information because she was an border officer. As a security professional I asked "isn't anyone watching", she replied: "yeah, that's my job".
Although there's sometimes legitimate reasons for their illegitimate searches....
Many officers are not allowed to associate with known criminals.
Re: (Score:2)
Bottom line:
Never date a cop.
Re: (Score:3)
The reason this is not implemented is that governments and/or tax-payers don't want to pay for logging features and auditors.
While the cost is real, I think it gets inflated or used as a red herring to prevent implementing audit features.
Removing the ability to search at will is like taking away a job perk.
But then who audits the auditors? (Score:2)
The solution is pretty simple, but often skipped: ...
1) The reason for every search should be required and logged by the searcher.
2) The logs be randomly spot-checked by an auditor(s) who verifies the reasons given by interviewing the person(s) who searched.
But to check it the auditors need detailed access to the records. So who audits THEM?
This kind of question has been asked repeatedly since at least the Roman Empire.
(The U.S. answer to "Who guards the guardians?" , at least for direct abuse of person un
Re: (Score:2)
Ordinary businesses need auditors, also, and will face similar problems. I'd check and see what standard business auditing practices are.
Re: (Score:2)
I don't really know how much money it takes to run a police department, but it's one of the primary things I expect my taxes to take care of.
Cut spending to fund it you have to.
Instead, any time there are budget cuts the first things to get the axe are police, firemen, and public parks. -_-
Re: (Score:2)
The problem isn't that it can't be mitigated, it's that there's no political will to oppose police unions during contract renegotiation. My city council rolled over and wet itself rather than enforce a voter-lead initiative to change the city charter and add an independent police ombudsman with investigatory and disciplinary powers. The office has never done anything in its 5 or so years of existence, and can't until the newly-negotiated contract expires. State law says the union has to okay any changes tha
Cogntive dissonance (Score:2, Insightful)
Somehow all the Trumpies on here are going crow at the injustice of this kind of abuse yet fail to see how it is directly analogous to the Stop and Frisk tactics that their hero repeatedly and strenuously advocated during Monday's debate....
Call centers have stricter rules (Score:4, Interesting)
Years later, I worked at a hospital. They had similar restrictions and consequences regarding patient records due to HIPPA regulations.
Accountability (Score:4, Informative)
The databases in question hold information such as driver licenses, car registration, criminal histories,warrants, missing persons, etc. In Ohio the main law enforcement database is LEADS which also ties into national criminal justice databases, Access to LEADS is regularly AUDITED. People who misuse it are routinely prosecuted. These databases are very important to public safety. You can never prevent misuse, but you can hold users accountable for their use of the system.
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
Access to LEADS is regularly AUDITED. People who misuse it are routinely prosecuted.
What do you mean by "prosecuted" and what fraction of people who misuse it actually get "prosecuted"?
By "routinely prosecuted" you could mean that there is a regular (e.g. monthly or yearly) prosecution for misuse. But that doesn't say anything about how often people are discovered misusing it. For example, if you have 4 cases a day of discovered misuse, but 99% of those get a slap on the wrist and only 1% get prosecuted, you're still talking about 1 prosecution a month, which from the outside looks to be "
Re: (Score:2)
The databases in question hold information such as driver licenses, car registration, criminal histories,warrants, missing persons, etc. In Ohio the main law enforcement database is LEADS which also ties into national criminal justice databases, Access to LEADS is regularly AUDITED. People who misuse it are routinely prosecuted. These databases are very important to public safety. You can never prevent misuse, but you can hold users accountable for their use of the system.
Maryland has METERS, which ties into NCIC, and is similarly audited. People are punished for misuse of METERS, sure. But that isn't the only database. Counties and municipalities have their own records and document management systems, which have confidential information in them, often in greater detail than METERS- full police reports without redaction, calls for service, and so on. Implementing auditing at this level is a hard sell with the shrink in state/local funding and manpower. And let's be rea
Of course (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Of course they do. Funny thing about power, it corrupts. I have little respect for authorities anymore. I miss my country of old...
Authorities resent and avoid accountability as much as criminals and for the same reasons.
Strat
The most most seriously needed LEO database (Score:5, Insightful)
We talk about serial killers and offenders, but the ones we need to talk about AND TRACK are the serial abusers in LEO.
Re:The most most seriously needed LEO database (Score:5, Insightful)
While it is true that there are a few officers that deserve jail time (and the do get it most of the time) 99.99% of the LEOs our there are the good guys.
No, they are not.
Because if they were, they would be fighting nail and tooth to get the 0.01% off the force and behind bars, where they belong.
As things are, there are three kinds of cops:
1. Dirty
2. Complicit
3. On the way out
If you are looking for a group to fawn over, I suggest that volunteer firefighters are much more worthy of your respect.
Re: (Score:2)
A fun read:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/... [huffingtonpost.com]
Re: (Score:2)
Do we condone the true bad actors? No, we put them in jail with the rest of the criminals
Usually we send them on vacation (aka "suspended with pay") then close the cases against them "for lack of public interest".
I understand your need to spew ad hominem attacks, trying to denigrate others is always easier than dealing with your own inadequacy. Please continue, you are highly entertaining.
The next time you hear a window in your house shatter at 2am, try calling the fire department and let me know how that works out for you.
Or you could ask Carolyn Warren, Joan Taliaferro and Miriam Douglas how calling 911 has worked out for them [wikipedia.org].
Re: (Score:2)
A fun read:
https://web.archive.org/web/20... [archive.org]
Re:The most most seriously needed LEO database (Score:4, Insightful)
I get, and to a certain extent agree with your premise that the newsworthy cases of police brutality are most certainly the exception and not the rule, there are two parts of your post with which I shall formally rebut:
While it is true that there are a few officers that deserve jail time (and the do get it most of the time) 99.99% of the LEOs our there are the good guys. They go out every day with a target painted on their back to protect the rest of us for crap pay. I am fine if they want to make sure their neighbors/acquaintances/dates don't have drug or assault convictions. Using that information to blackmail is different, but just having the information is fine as long as they are responsible with it.
I think the 99.99% figure is exaggerated, but I'll roll with it for the moment. I don't get to check if my date has an assault conviction. Just because the police office is in a place where such information is readily accessible doesn't mean that they are allowed to just use it for whatever they want. As an IT/support tech, I have remote access and admin passwords to dozens of servers for dozens of companies. Only once have I ever used one of my clients' servers for personal use, and that was to demonstrate a particular piece of software for a friend of mine, with explicit consent of the owner of that server. LEOs don't sign up to be LEOs with the promise of a $250,000 salary and then realize it's between $40K and 70K a year. That information is abundantly clear long before they ever step foot in the police academy. Access to my confidential data is not penance for making less money than a doctor or lawyer. Even if you are okay with it (as is your right), I am not. The question is which one of us should be able to impose our feelings upon the other.
The second issue I have is with this part...
Put yourself in their shoes. [snip] You have no clue if he just murdered his girlfriend, has $5M in heroine in the trunk, is off his meds or is high out of his gourd.
Nope. But the foundation of everything LEOs are required to uphold is summed up in the following sentence: Innocent until proven guilty. Maybe he did just murder his girlfriend...but unless there's a dead body in the front seat, he didn't. Maybe he's got $5M of heroin in his trunk...but until there's probable cause to search the vehicle, he doesn't. Maybe he is indeed high...that will become bleeding obvious in about 30 seconds of interaction.
If he is not obeying orders and is putting his hands in places where a weapon might be concealed, you have a very reasonable fear for your life. So while not 100% of police shootings are justified, you are a sociopath if you can't at least empathize with the people in our society who put their lives in danger to protect us from the criminal element.
My level of empathy is strenuous at best, for two reasons. First, if the job is too hard, quit. It's not hard to stop being a police officer. There is no shame in saying, "being a competent police officer is too hard for me". It is a tough job, but the difficulties of that job are no secret. If someone signs up to be a police officer, they are signing up to carry a gun that they will hopefully never have to use, but are lawfully authorized to use far more liberally than the average citizen. With that authority should come accountability...and the perceived lack of said accountability is the root of the challenges at hand.
Re: (Score:3)
In other words, you have a list of offenses that deserve the death penalty. These include disobeying a police officer, regardless of whether the order is legal, heard and understood, or physically possible, as well as disagreeing with a police officer. If I'm using a camera to record what's happening in a police encounter, perfectly legally, and th
Re: (Score:2)
While it is true that there are a few officers that deserve jail time (and the do get it most of the time) 99.99% of the LEOs our there are the good guys.
If you think 1/10000 cops is a bad apple, you haven't been around much. That would be roughly 90 "bad cops" in the US. Well, an officer in my town shot and permanently disabled a young black man for stealing beer and brandishing a skateboard. He was shooting so wild that I saw a photo of a bullet hole in the upstairs window of a house across the street. Later the same year I saw other officers giving him high fives after he knocked a homeless man's head into the ground and that man had a seizure and died sh
Re: (Score:2)
The only think that will fix this is to assume... (Score:2)
...corruption universally. If you work for the government or one of its contractors, you should be filmed at all times, and have all your texts and emails monitored. A parallel law for the private sector should kick in for executives.
Is that intrusive? Yes, that's the point. Would it work? Not perfectly, but it would knock out a lot of casual corruption and catch quite a few of the more egregious abusers, particularly in the defense industry and the three letter agencies.
Re: (Score:2)
At what point do we do away with licenses? (Score:2)
I've often wondered how useful these databases truly are, like driver licenses and automotive registrations. I had a discussion once where the need for driver licenses came up. I think it had something to do with illegal immigrants driving. So I thought I do some searching on the internet on how many people drove without licenses. The truth is that no one knows and very few people have enough information to even estimate it. There could be 10 million unlicensed drivers out there, give or take about 40
Is anyone in the least bit surprised? (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Yes, funny. Except all these databases keep getting approved by frightened idiots afraid of "the browns" who frankly don't believe their police will ever actually use the unconstitutional powers they've given them against THEM.
Re:Pay your fair share! (Score:5, Funny)
"the browns"
what you got against Cleveland?
Re: (Score:3)
It's hard to deny that an awful lot of the "we need these powers to protect you against crime/terrorism" pitches have a not-so-subtle racial component. I mean you say "terrorist" and most people automatically think "Arabs", despite the fact that the vast majority of terrorists in America are white.
Re: (Score:3)
terrorism
noun
the use of violence and intimidation in the pursuit of political aims.
Sounds like a pretty accurate description of, say, violent groups firebombing abortion clinics to advance extremist medical policies. Or burning crosses and even churches in an attempt to drive ethnic minority populations out of a region.
I could go on, but I doubt I'll convince you anyway.
Re: (Score:3)
I don't think you understand what money is. The government has as much money as it chooses to print. Money is not value, and conversely.
Now if you'd just held the line at power you would have had a good point, but then "pay your fair share" would have seemed irrelevant.
N.B.: There *is* a relationship between money and power, but it's not a direct relationship, and an absolute amount of money has no particular value. What has value is what you can buy with it, and that depends on the total amount in circ
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
or punished by administrative leave with pay (vacation)
Re: (Score:2)
or a desk job with plenty of overtime and take home 6 figures for that year.
My ex-brother in-law would use his seniority to work Christmas night and New Years when it fell on a weekend. One night == a week of pay: nighttime pay, weekend pay, holiday pay, ... all at time and a half or more ....
Well, that money was going to go to someone who had to man that shift. A worse violation would be if he never had to serve the holiday shifts so he could be with his family, but forcing the guys with less seniority to always take them.
Re: (Score:3)
Yes, but they don't deserve to make that much money for one night of work.
Hospital workers have to cover holidays too, and they don't win the lottery when they take that shift.
Re: (Score:2)
The police officer's union is almost always worth blaming. So are a few others. In this particular case I don't really see that much wrong with it. Those are times most people don't want to work, but somebody's got to.
The problem is, some unions are excessively powerful, and others are so weak that they can't negotiate with their "adversary". And adversary needs to be in quotes, because many of them are in collusion with the bosses.
I don't have a good answer, but the breaking of (most) unions has just y
Re: (Score:3)
Police unions are not at all like unions for corporate employees. The employer of the police is the government (at some level), which is elected by the people.
Personally, I don't think the police should even be allowed to have a union. Their employer, the city government, does not have a profit motive like a corporation, nor is it owned by a single person or handful of people like privately-held companies.
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
That's *if you get caught*. More likely, if you get caught more than once or twice, or get caught in some really egregious violation (like bulk selling the data).
Perhaps "a significant number" do get caught, but is that 90% or only 1% of the total occurances? I'd lean more towards the latter. What are the odds of getting caught the first time you do it?
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Well, that access could be abused and apparently with no worse penalty than losing a job they clearly shouldn't have had in the first place, for one thing.
Re:Would you rather they SHOOT YOU DEAD? (Score:5, Interesting)
Re: (Score:2)
Police are NOT dangerous, unless you make yourself a target by refusing to comply or acting like you are dangerous to the officer.
I think what you meant to write was, "Police are NOT dangerous, unless you happen to cross paths with them."
Yes, they keep us safe. Sometimes, though, they're the kind of people they should be keeping us safe from.
Re:Would you rather they SHOOT YOU DEAD? (Score:5, Insightful)
You display ignorance and a misunderstanding of statistics.
Police are not angels, they are human beings. They are almost EXACTLY as honest as your average employed civilian. Studies show that 96% of them are not criminals, with another approximately 10% doing unethical but not clearly illegal things (such as 'not following protocal').
You look at that and stupidly say wow, 96% is great.
The rest of us look at that say 4% crooked means one in every 25 cops is an outright theif, and 10% shadey means that if you walk in to a police station and you will see a shady cop in every single squad room.
We realize we need to write the laws based on those 4%, not the 96%.
We also realize that that 96% - they are not the ones that end up shooting unarmed civilians. When a cop hits the news for questionable behavior, the odds are not 4% crooked or even 10% shady, but more like 30% crooked and 70% shady.
Re:Would you rather they SHOOT YOU DEAD? (Score:5, Insightful)
Also, those 96% are only good guys if you don't count how they won't "rat" on their brothers in blue and will defend them in spite of obvious evidence.
Re: (Score:2)
The real problem with the Catholic church was that they protected their child abusers, including moving them around and in some cases putting them in roles where they had more children to abuse.
Re: (Score:2)
We also realize that that 96% - they are not the ones that end up shooting unarmed civilians.
No, but an overwhelming majority of them seem to be the ones who doctor their reports and lie in court to cheat justice for the 4% that end up shooting unarmed civilians. Most non-police wouldn't participate in coverups to let their co-workers get away with murder, yet every unjustified police homicide seems to have elements of a coverup surrounding it.
Obstruction of justice, perjury, and accessory to murder may not be quite as bad a crime as murder, but the enormous percentage of police who seem to be alri
Re: (Score:2)
Police are NOT dangerous, unless you make yourself a target by refusing to comply or acting like you are dangerous to the officer.
If a police officer walks up to you, they now own your time, right? And so whatever they want you to do, you now have to stop, and do whatever they say, or they have the right to shoot you, even if you weren't breaking any laws. Am I clear?
The officer doesn't want to shoot anybody if for no other reason than the piles of paperwork it causes, but they also just want to get home to their families safe at the end of their shift.
"Wow, paperwork, what a drag. Forget about the poor bloke that I just shot, and his family, me getting back to my family is much more important, because, well, I'm a cop!"
Make their job easier by not acting in ways that get interpreted as threatening and you are more likely to walk away, even if an officer is having a bad day.
Making their job easier is now my job, and allows me the possibility of wa
Re: (Score:2)
Fixed that for you.
You don't follow the news much, do you? When an officer shoots and kills someone without provocation, the officer usually gets off. This is changing, partly because of the prevalence of cameras that objectively record what's going on.
Re: (Score:2)
And addendum:
The above doesn't describe all police officers, but you have no way to tell which ones it does describe.