Police Credit Google Street View For Helping Catch Drug Ring
from the you're-on-google-camera dept
Following on our recent story of police using Google Street View to give them a lead in a stolen car incident, comes another report, sent in by Joshy, of a heroin dealing ring in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, who was dealing on the streets out in the open -- and also were caught on Google Street View images:
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Filed Under: drug ring, street view
Companies: google
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Intermittent surveillance is better than continuous, possibly?
But what politician could survive saying "We're relying on the law of averages."?
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Mobile camera
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It's more about local police than google.
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I think they are hoping that the gangs will shoot at the next Google car the passes by :)
ps: This is intended as a humorous comment, with no foundations on reality.
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And the danger is not over yet, it could still happen.
Anyway. Drugs are not that big if a deal to a large size potion of the country. Waste of productive capacity to prosecute crimes like these.
A better way of handling this issue would be to decriminalize these substances, provide pharmacy grade drugs through pharmacies and undercut the black market.
Taxed and regulated, but mostly regulated, the major criminal impact of drug use would disappear. Then all that money could be reallocated to something more useful to society as a whole rather than keeping drug addicts in prison for decades at a time.
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Re:
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Google Only Got in the Picture Because the Investigation Took So Long
One can imagine how it works: Strange customer comes into the store, is offered cigarettes at the legal price, and asks, "aint you got nuttin cheaper?" They sell him some untaxed smokes from under the counter, and he doesn't pull a badge or anything like that, and he starts buying untaxed cigarettes regularly, and in due course, he expresses an interest in drugs, and gets an introduction to the dealers hanging out on the street-corner. The agent doesn't wear a wire recorder at the start, or have a tail with a video camera, anything which might make the dealers suspicious. That sort of thing gets introduced by small increments after they're hooked. The whole process took four months.
Obviously, at some point, a drug dealer has to trust his customers, or he'd never sell any drugs. Equally obviously, if the cop on the beat felt actively antagonistic, he could drive the dealers away with a lot of general extralegal harassment, scaring their customers away, that kind of thing. At any rate, facing a lot of time, the dealers will presumably put the fingers on their suppliers, and any crooked cops who might be involved.
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Re:
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Promoting Big Brother.
'Eric Schmidt, Google’s CEO, said that his company’s policy was “to get right up to the creepy line and not cross it”'
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/google/8086191/How-Google-crossed-the-creepy-line.html
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Re: Promoting Big Brother.
The main point to me though, is if there are going to be cameras, it's best that their photos or video are public, rather than in the hands of the government.
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It gets better..
There you go folks - you heard it here first.
Incidentally, I hereby trademark, copyright and patent the above information. If you want to repeat it, please send me a cheque for $250.
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Re: It gets better..
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Re: Re: It gets better..
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Ive got it, they should merge TSA and Google
Seem like a perfect match to me, we can have a world store of everyone who have flown and been photographed naked..
They might even be able to track cancer rates from the scanners, on google maps.. !!..
But we can let google fight our crime, hell we might as well get google after Bin ladin, do they have street view in the Pushtin ?
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Re: Ive got it, they should merge TSA and Google
We could soon have Google Streetview cars that take NAKED pictures of everyone they pass!
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How did google help the police. ?
In what way did google street view 'HELP'catch a drug ring ? .
Im quite sure even you can answer that one mike, you claim they helped, then explain how they helped..
You might want to also explain how they would not of gotten the conviction if it were not for Googles input ?
And what in those pictures is any proof, or evidence that those people were doing anything criminal..
The picture just shows them standing on the street, is that illegal in the US ?
Last I heard it was not, so if google 'catches' you 'in the street' Mike can assume you are performing a 'crime'..
So we await your answer Mike, how did google HELP the police ?
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Re: How did google help the police. ?
http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20101113/00283611838/police-credit-google-street-view- for-helping-catch-drug-ring.shtml#c52
it wasn't the ONLY proof in the case but used to supports testimony.
LRN2READ
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Re: Re: How did google help the police. ?
I t does not say ANYWHERE there that the NYPD used the google pic to support the testomony. Clerly the pic itself shows nothing, just some people standing in front of a shop... What else does it prove ?
Yes I did read the original article, and Mike interpretation of it, but unlike you I actually read what is said !!!.
Unless you can show me a quote that supports you claim, or supports Mikes claim then STFU, because really all your doing is drinking the Mike cool aid, and cannot seem to think for yourself !!. sorry, but thats the way it is..
No one can explain, why google 'helped' the police, when its is clear that with or without google they would have been caught, and google had nothing to do with it..
I tell you what though, I would not like to be a google streetview guy going into those area's now, knowing that they are the unofficial 'police'. without guns !!! :)
good luck with that..
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All this Street View talk
I like Street View.
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Re:
Actually I've spoken out against that sort of thing. Do you not see the difference between the two?
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Re: Re:
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www.Pee2PeeNet.net
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Re: Google violated rights?
First, I don't blame you for thinking this is a violation of "rights" as I likely would have thought the same thing before I became a police officer over a decade ago. But I do get this complaint often from fellow citizens who do not realize that in a public place, the supreme court has ruled that one's expectation of privacy is very limited. I don't necessarily whole sale agree with this, but it is what it is.
Therefore, when in a public place, the default is that you should be aware you can be photographed. Exceptions would be the act of photographing someone during the course of harassment, which would require a pattern of behavior toward an individual by another individual/entity, in in which case would be a CIVIL issue, not a constitutional rights issue. Furthermore, if the pattern of photographing someone is being carried out to catch criminal behavior, the situation reverses again back to the right of the photographer to photograph someone in a public place over a series of incidents.
In short, Google isn't violating anyone's rights to photograph people on the street, and have taken efforts VOLUNTARILY to obscure faces and license plate numbers from their images. This was not a legal requirement, it was there own policy arguably "just to be kind" but certainly to avoid any civil lawsuits, frivolous or otherwise. This of course does not include the pictures that captured the goings-on INSIDE of some home where the curtains/blinds were pulled back. While that was still ostensibly not a legal issue, it could very easily be made into a strong civil case as rather than being an inadvertent pic you or I might capture when taking a picture of the front of a house, Google's planned practice of taking a picture of the front of just about every house could make them a lot more liable, again CIVILLY, by nor taking measures to obscure what they capture INSIDE houses.
Again, if anyone thinks Google 'worked with the police' on this clearly does not understand how minuscule the contribution, if any contribution at all, this photograph would have for the case in relation to the plethora of other evidence.
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Re: Re: Google violated rights?
You're wasting your time. "Jon Noowtun" isn't a serious poster, they're parodying Jon Newton of P2PNet, a paranoid nutcase who uses his blog to post rants about everything Google does. Newton has put forth the idea that you have a right to privacy out in public and has even stated that it's illegal in Canada (where he lives) to photograph anyone, anywhere without their permission.
If you'd like to explain the difference between public and private to Newton himself, you can find his blog at www.p2pnet.net. Just don't expect any of your comments to stay on the site for more than a few minutes though. Anyone who disagrees with him gets labeled a "shill" or "fanboi" and has their comments deleted.
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This is a sensationalized story....
I've used Facebook and the Latin-American version of Facebook to track down wanted felons, as well as used satellite views to get layouts of certain properties. I've also used county auditor sites to get floor plans of houses or businesses, but this is pretty standard practice these days.
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