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Post Script is an original video series that unravels how some of mankind’s brightest ideas wound up taking an abrupt turn from their original design. Each bite-sized episode combines nuanced reporting with visually experimental short-form storytelling.
Two laws recently signed by California Gov. Jerry Brown mandate more public input and oversight of law enforcement agencies’ purchase and use of cellphone tracking equipment.
The California Department of Justice supports a plan by the Alameda County district attorney and Oakland and Fremont police to obtain controversial cellphone surveillance technology, documents show.
At a rapid pace, and mostly hidden from the public, police agencies throughout California have been collecting millions of records on drivers and feeding them to intelligence fusion centers operated by local, state and federal law enforcement.
Flickr/jtrout FBI investigators used a court order authorizing access to cellphone customer data to quietly deploy a powerful surveillance technology known as “stingrays,” privacy groups contend in a new court filing [PDF] that claims the devices are overly invasive. Your cellphone can be singled out by its international mobile subscriber identity, or IMSI, which then makes
A Pilatus PC-12 NG Spectre in flight.Pilatus Aircraft Ltd. While the nation disputes if, when and where the government should use drones over U.S. soil, Texas state police are taking their surveillance efforts to the next level. In a little-noticed July purchase, officials at the Texas Department of Public Safety inked a $7.4 million contract
Surfing the InternetBrian Lane Winfield Moore/Flickr Private tech firms have found a new market for their sophisticated software capable of analyzing vast segments of the Internet – local police departments looking for ways to pre-empt the next mass shooting or other headline-grabbing event. Twitter, Facebook and other popular sites are 24-hour fire hoses of raw
Interstate 19 in Arizona, heading toward the U.S.-Mexico borderKen Lund/Flickr In their unending battle to deter illegal immigration, drug trafficking and terrorism, U.S. authorities already have beefed up border security with drug-sniffing dogs, aircraft and thousands more agents manning interior checkpoints. Now, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration has decided it wants more, and the Justice
Security guards at the Arden Fair mall in Sacramento see this visual interface after digitally scanning a license plate.Courtesy of Steve Reed Under pressure from law enforcement lobbyists and private industry, a California lawmaker has abandoned his effort to restrict how personal information on the whereabouts of drivers generated from high-tech license-plate scanners can be
DNY59/istockphoto.com A critical Supreme Court ruling at the intersection of modern technology and privacy leaves open whether police can still track the car or cell phone of a suspect without threatening their constitutional rights, according to a new report [PDF] from the Congressional Research Service. Investigators in 2004 secretly affixed a tracking device to the car
