Secretive Surveillance Company Is Selling Cops Cameras Hidden In Gravestones (vice.com) 52
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Motherboard: A surveillance vendor that works with U.S. government agencies, such as the FBI, DEA, and ICE, is marketing spying capabilities to local police departments, including cameras that are hidden inside a tombstone, a baby car seat, and a vacuum cleaner. The brochure highlights some of the capabilities on offer to law enforcement agencies, from the novel to the sometimes straight-up bizarre. Special Services Group, the vendor behind the brochure, does not advertise its products publicly. Its logo is the floating-eye-in-pyramid logo seen on the back of the $1 bill, which conspiracy theorists associate with the Illuminati, and the company's slogan is "Constant Vigilance." The company is so secretive that, when asked for comment for this story, it threatened VICE with legal action if we published this article.
The brochure, dubbed "Black Book" by its authors, contains a cornucopia of surveillance devices. "The Tombstone Cam is our newest video concealment offering the ability to conduct remote surveillance operations from cemeteries," one section of the Black Book reads. The device can also capture audio, its battery can last for two days, and "the Tombstone Cam is fully portable and can be easily moved from location to location as necessary," the brochure adds. Another product is a video and audio capturing device that looks like an alarm clock, suitable for "hotel room stings," and other cameras are designed to appear like small tree trunks and rocks, the brochure reads. Other products include more traditional surveillance cameras and lenses as well as tools for surreptitiously gaining entry to buildings. The "Phantom RFID Exploitation Toolkit" lets a user clone an access card or fob, and the so-called "Shadow" product can "covertly provide the user with PIN code to an alarm panel," the brochure reads.
The brochure, dubbed "Black Book" by its authors, contains a cornucopia of surveillance devices. "The Tombstone Cam is our newest video concealment offering the ability to conduct remote surveillance operations from cemeteries," one section of the Black Book reads. The device can also capture audio, its battery can last for two days, and "the Tombstone Cam is fully portable and can be easily moved from location to location as necessary," the brochure adds. Another product is a video and audio capturing device that looks like an alarm clock, suitable for "hotel room stings," and other cameras are designed to appear like small tree trunks and rocks, the brochure reads. Other products include more traditional surveillance cameras and lenses as well as tools for surreptitiously gaining entry to buildings. The "Phantom RFID Exploitation Toolkit" lets a user clone an access card or fob, and the so-called "Shadow" product can "covertly provide the user with PIN code to an alarm panel," the brochure reads.
Re: (Score:1)
That's what they'd like you to think.
And the /. ad right next to this article is (Score:5, Funny)
smoke detector hidden hd spy camera
https://deals.slashdot.org/sal... [slashdot.org]
Re: (Score:2)
Most slashdotters have one of those, but they can't get anybody who isn't related to visit them.
Screenplay (Score:3)
Your dead grandpa ratted me out, I'm gonna kill you!
\o/ (Score:1)
Noone is without merit...
Re: (Score:2)
To be more exact, they use the one I use for my own DIY CCTV concealed setups: https://www.amazon.co.uk/ELP-W... [amazon.co.uk]
Looking at theirs they have the same lock ring and lens setup as on most ELPs. I suspect they are priced with 2 zeroes at the end though. Exactly as in the closing sequence of Small Soldiers (add a few zeroes to the p
Re: \o/ (Score:1)
Just 2 zeroes? I mean, it is a 'secret' brochure targeting law enforcement, with unlimited siezed dollars to spend discretionarily. The secret is the inflated prices, not the existence of cheap Chinese surveilance gear resellers. --- a USA citizen where civil forfeiture is a thing.
Too many movies (Score:3)
How much actual crime happens within camera distance of a tombstone? Sounds like someone has seen too many movies.
Re:Too many movies (Score:5, Insightful)
You do understand that your typical control-freak, anal-retentive 'law enforcement' type wants a world where everyone is followed everywhere they go, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, cradle-to-grave, don't you? No, I'm not paranoid, and no, I'm far from the only person who has been seeing this as a growing trend for years and decades now, and yes your politicians know about it and are perfectly okay with it, because they either want everyone watched, or they actually believe this crap will somehow reduce crime. It's just more trading of freedom and privacy for a false sense of security, meanwhile thugs with badges and guns have more and more control over everyone else -- including, yes, you.
Re:Too many movies (Score:5, Interesting)
You left out the bit, where whilst they want to track everything you do, they want to hide everything they do. It seems like they won't be able to manage the last part because we can use those tools on a distributed basis to track them. So now they are pushing privacy laws because they want to continue to hide their corruption. Junk Yard Dog Law Enforcers, what do they do with their cameras when they want to break the law, turn them off, you get the idea.
I am thinking distributed tracking of government officials probably a good idea, you know a web site, where you post a photo of your corrupt politician when you spot them, take a photo upload it and get points, keep snapping away so we know where the corrupt fuckers are at all times. No privacy for elected officials.
Re: (Score:2)
NETWORK DOCUMENTATION OF CRIME SYNDICATES (Score:3, Insightful)
That could be at the funeral proper, or many years later, at, say, midnight on an anniversary of the thug's birth [and the tomb camera will just keep taking pictures & taking pictures
Muh Bro!!!!! (Score:4, Informative)
Re: (Score:3)
It's not helpful to over-hype the capabilities that the camera can do: the battery in the Tombstone cam lasts two days:
Re: NETWORK DOCUMENTATION OF CRIME SYNDICATES (Score:1)
Tombstones are heavy. It could easy contain a car battery which would power that thing for a month. Or bury a bunch of car batteries in the grave and have it run for a year.
Ok ok perhaps I'm getting just a little paranoid here.
Solar -vs- Low Voltage cable (Score:3, Interesting)
Low voltage lines can be more or less pushed into the ground just a few inches, whereas a standard 15-amp 120V line would need to be buried deep, in a
Re: (Score:2)
"for all I know, they may already have ethernet over low-voltage cable"
It's called PoE.
There are also standards for running Ethernet over AC power lines, like homelink. There's no need for it to be low voltage.
Re: Too many movies (Score:1)
Hate crimes where certain ethnicities / religions tomb stones are attacked. Revenge desecration of rival gangs dead members. There's all kinds of activity, not mention drug deals etc occuring.
Re: (Score:1)
The new grave has a very, very heavy coffin? 2 for 1 use.
Two criminals "meet" over two "friends" graves that just happen to be next to each other?
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Well, you see the undead rising and going back to sleep, might be creepy, but some people are into that!!
Re: (Score:1)
Some utter scum seem to think that desecrating graveyards is funny, they're dead so what's the problem. Not so funny when you arrive to find your loved ones final resting place looking like a trash heap, covered in garbage, spray paint on the stone and divets dug out of the earth over their bodies like someone was trying to dig down to the coffin. The one place you expect to be left alone is your final bed six-feet down, not have some bunch of bored, mindless scumbags come along and ruin memorials to good
Re: (Score:2)
How much actual crime happens within camera distance of a tombstone?
Hey, there's serious stuff going on there. People are stealing flowers off each other's graves.
From their website (Score:5, Informative)
Special Services Group supplies technical solutions for law enforcement, military, government, and select clients.
Yeah, yeah. Select clients.
Pretty much the same people that sell crap to private detectives. And private detective wanna-bees. And people who want to stalk ex-wives and girlfriends. There is nothing exotic or special about the stuff they sell to law enforcement. Other than higher prices.
Traveling Grave! (Score:1)
How about using keep left signs instead? (Score:2)
https://youtu.be/uel1vfAQ52M [youtu.be] (a bit before the end)
Or keep right signs, in this case, I guess.
Some of those that work forces... (Score:5, Informative)
Some of those that work forces
Are the same that burn crosses.
Or bug cemeteries.
Surveillance society would be great if the people watching the cameras weren't part of the problem.
But since they are, it's a moral imperative to blind the cams.
That sounds like more of the same. (Score:2)
Who's gonna identify the evil watchmen-watchmen who identify the evil watchmen then?
In the end, nobody you didn't get to know and trust personally, can ever do the watching for you. And then, still, your very own reality distortions, triggers amd prejudices could ruin the show.
Re: (Score:2)
It is more of the same.
https://www.azlyrics.com/lyric... [azlyrics.com]
https://www.azlyrics.com/lyric... [azlyrics.com]
Re: (Score:2)
OMG, the use ALL CAPS -- don't cross them! (Score:3, Insightful)
Their lawyers use all caps ... they must be important bigshots who are to be obeyed without question.
Why not? We have webcams pointed at gravestones (Score:2)
Andy Warhol's grave [earthcam.com]
Naive Carnegie Mellon students used to think that Andrew [wikipedia.org] was named after Andrew Carnegie.
Of course it was actually named after Andy Warhol.
Lol (Score:3)
Battery life (Score:3)
This thing is the size of a tombstone and can only power its camera for two days?
"secretive" ... got something to hide, you mean? (Score:2)
And not their privacy or anything we could "find" to harm them.
But things they KNOW *they* are harming the general public with!
Aka, they are a criminal organization, that just so happens to have found a few technically not illegal loopholes.
Everybody knows their shit should be illegal, and them in prison, though.
(Like it would be, e.g. in the EU.)
Just get a game/trail camera (Score:2)
Get a hunting camera.
And stick it on a tree near by. Battery lasts a long time, with infrared leds for night time.
Put it 10-15 feet high, no one will notice.($70)
https://www.amazon.com/Coolife... [amazon.com]
And if you want vacuum cleaner surveillance (WTF!?) go with a micro camera ($35):
https://www.amazon.com/PELDA-S... [amazon.com]
The baby car seat concept is a new level of evil.
I don't have any cameras of this nature, I have a dash cam, it has been very useful (for videos that are cool and catching stupid people).
This is not revolutionary (Score:1)
And yet... (Score:3)
... cops wonder why people don't like/trust them.....
A great idea dawned on her (Score:2)
"The Tombstone Cam..."
"Sold!"
"But I didn't even explain its features. It has..."
"No need. I'll have 200 of them. Ship them to this address in Sunnydale, CA."
Re: (Score:2)
"The Tombstone Cam..."
"Sold!"
"But I didn't even explain its features. It has..."
"No need. I'll have 200 of them. Ship them to this address in Sunnydale, CA."
Buffy? Really? Heh! : )
Cemetary? (Score:1)
Just wire it up. We'd like comcast cable to plot #3441, also run electric.
Yea grandma's dead but we like to keep in touch.