Homeland Security's Tech Wonders

Lucas123 writes "The multi-billion dollar budget of the Department of Homeland Security has spawned a myriad of new, whiz-bang technology that includes things like keychain-size, remote-controlled aerial vehicles designed to collect and transmit data for military and homeland security uses. It also includes infrared cameras that capture license plate images to match them in milliseconds to police records. "Seventy percent of all criminal activity can be tied to a vehicle," says Mark Windover, president of Remington ELSAG Law Enforcement Systems, which is marketing its product to 250 U.S. police agencies."

Thank God we have this technology

[by Anonymous Coward]

Now we will see crime drop just like it did in the UK when they installed their cameras!

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[im just cannonfodder (1089055)]

You are joking aren't you, security cameras have this week been proved ineffective in solving and preventing crime!

http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/news/index.cfm?newsid=10804 [pcadvisor.co.uk]

i know in my home town that police men on the beat has been completely stopped since the introduction of the blanket cctv coverage in my town but on Friday and Saturday nights shop windows in our high street get smashed and parked cars vandalised, and the drunken fights are now not stopped as no police attend, so who exactly is watching

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[WhatAmIDoingHere (742870)]

"You are joking aren't you"

Yes. He was.

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[symes (835608)]

You are joking aren't you, security cameras have this week been proved ineffective in solving and preventing crime!

With the greatest of respect, this study 1. does not "proove" anything - if you wanted to test the relationship between crimw clear-up rate and cctv then this is not the way you would do it, 2. studies in the beavhoural sciences typical 'falsify' 3. that study did not say anything about prevention. There's reference to a study completed in 2005 but this has been the topic of some contention in the world of criminology - some studies show one thing, another something completely different.

CCTV in the UK is

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[mpe (36238)]

Now we will see crime drop just like it did in the UK when they installed their cameras!

Some of these things may actually cause a rise in crime. Since they are at least as useful to criminals as they are to law enforcement.

We need "CAPTCHA" license plates.

[mosel-saar-ruwer (732341)]

It also includes infrared cameras that capture license plate images to match them in milliseconds to police records.

The CAPTCHA's are getting so damned difficult to decipher that I can hardly even sign up for anonymous email accounts or download pr0n anymore.

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[Reziac (43301)]

[drives through large mud puddle, neglects to wash truck]

There. All captcha'd.

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[jimicus (737525)]

No problem. Make it illegal to have dirty license plates - as soon as the system detects a license plate it can't read, an officer is dispatched to stop the vehicle.

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[c_forq (924234)]

I am pretty sure this is the case in every state. If it is too dirty to read it falls under obstruction (same charge as if you covered it, painted it, or hid it).

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[Chmcginn (201645)]

Yet there's still hordes of people who drive around with those smoked plastic covers over their license plates.

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[Reziac (43301)]

Likely how it would work, yeah... all they'd have to do is attach a fine with points, and make it part of the unspoken ticket quota system...

But it'd be real hard to enforce in a rural state where everyone has dusty/muddy cars almost all the time, or in winter when you get snow splatter freezing on the lower half of the car, and can't drive two blocks without getting resplattered.

Another perverse thought: hairspray. Won't obscure it, but reduces contrast dramatically.

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[Technician (215283)]

Even simpler. Make a long bumper sticker that runs the entire length of the bumper right up to both sides of the plate. Fill it with random text and numbers the same size as the text using a carbon base ink on the sticker. Cover it with black window tint film. You now have a nice black bumper. The auto IR camera sees an extreme plate as it makes the window film transparant.

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[PopeRatzo (965947)]

If they're gonna captcha something, how about if they make it Osama Bin Laden. I'm not sure how much terrorism is going to be stopped by them being able to read my license plate number and match it to some database somewhere. They might find out I owe some parking tickets, though.

But then, I doubt if any of this is about terrorism at all. I'm a lot more scared by a corporate-owned government using high technology to watch and control our behavior than I am of fundamentalist Muslims blowing me up. And I

bureaucratic incompetance is the greatest threat

[by Anonymous Coward]

How is stuff like correlating license plates to crime, or flying small recon drones around, helping catch terrorists? According to the Director of National Intelligence, Michael McConnell, the best thing Washington could have done to prevent the terrorist attacks in new york was to have listened to FBI agents when they repeatedly warned that Zacarias Moussaoui was acting suspiciously, and repeatedly requested search warrants (http://abcnews.go.com/TheLaw/Story?id=3621517&page=1 .) Homeland security should be doing research about how to prevent bureaucratic incompetance.

Re:bureaucratic incompetance is the greatest threa

[ScrewMaster (602015)]

Probably that means they should be spying upon themselves more. That way, if an agent figures out something useful maybe someone in another agency will learn about it and be able to make use of it. At least they won't need to worry about lack of inter-agency cooperation and all that.

Re:bureaucratic incompetance is the greatest threa

[Aglassis (10161)]

Homeland security should be doing research about how to prevent bureaucratic incompetance.

I like this sentence. It sends me into a trance every time I read it. I think it is because I imagine the DHS trying to perform this research and ironically getting nowhere. Then they try to research why their previous research got nowhere. When that gets nowhere they decide to research why the research of why their previous research got nowhere got nowhere and so on.

More than you understand.

[khasim (1285)]

Pop quiz, in the USofA are there:
#1. More terrorists?

#2. More crooked cops?

Now, which of these is this new surveillance technology supposed to protect you from and which ones will have it?

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/conductunbecoming/ [nwsource.com]

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[nuintari (47926)]

Pop quiz, in the USofA are there:
#1. More terrorists?

#2. More crooked cops?

#3. More people in a position of power who think they are above some laws because they know best.

Re:bureaucratic incompetance is the greatest threa

[dbIII (701233)]

Don't worry. With the increased number of political appointments instead of by merit we've got the bureaucratic incompetance situation at an entirely new level. Soon we'll have world's best practice in bureaucratic incompetance instead of being left behind in this area by the top performers in the third world. Forget study and hard work - join the party comrade!

Data is not the same as intelligence

[Nomen Publicus (1150725)]

But where does one direct all this "wonderful" technology? There is a myth that seems to infest these new fangled security organisations, that if only they can gather sufficient data they will be able to identify and prevent bad things happening. They cannot, but are willing to spend huge amounts of money in the attempt.

Look up "incest".

[khasim (1285)]

There is a myth that seems to infest these new fangled security organisations, that if only they can gather sufficient data they will be able to identify and prevent bad things happening. They cannot, but are willing to spend huge amounts of money in the attempt.

The companies making the products often hire politicians who voted to purchase those products to fight [crime|terrorism|kiddie_porn].

It's all an incestuous cycle.

70% bad vehicles

[drseuk (824707)]

"Seventy percent of all criminal activity can be tied to a vehicle,"

As vee say in the Netherlands, "Where's my bike?"

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[elwinc (663074)]

This is indeed a useful statistic:

"Seventy percent of all criminal activity can be tied to a vehicle," says Mark Windover, president of Remington ELSAG Law Enforcement Systems, which is marketing its product to 250 U.S. police agencies.

Funny, Remington ELSAG didn't offer statistics on what percent of crimes can be tied to a gun...

Re:70% bad vehicles

[superskippy (772852)]

It's America. 70% of all American life can be tied to a vehicle. It's practically illegal to go anywhere without driving....

Why use humans when you've technology

[mister_woods (949290)]

It looks like the same track is being followed as in the United Kingdom, where we host the world's largest collection of CCTV cameras, not to mention cameras to catch speeding motorists, read registration plates, etc. Whilst it may give a nice warm glow of reassurance to those who believe the propaganda, does all this gadgetry do anything to reduce the amount of crime as opposed to the fear thereof? Not really: CCTV cameras, for example, have blind spots in their coverage. Technology is being used as a fig-leaf to cover the fact that the powers that be cannot or will not use the presence of humans patrolling in uniforms as a means of catching or deterring ne'er do wells. Technological fixes seem to be preferred too since they do not require wages, meal breaks, holidays or other such luxuries which drain the public purse.

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[ScrewMaster (602015)]

Well, how would you feel about a mobile police AI that could do all of that without the wages, meal breaks or holidays? They had one in a movie once. It was called "ED-209". Didn't work very well as I recall.

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[vertinox (846076)]

Technology is being used as a fig-leaf to cover the fact that the powers that be cannot or will not use the presence of humans patrolling in uniforms as a means of catching or deterring ne'er do wells.

I believe Anthony Burgess pointed this out well in Clockwork Orange. You can use technology to make a man into an upright citizen, but it does not make him an upright citizen. It more or less destroys the nature of man.

hmmmm

[phoenixwade (997892)]

Seems to me that it isn't the huge budget of the department of homeland security that's pushing these innovations, it's DARPA, the same group that has been pushing everything from AI (with cool desert races) to the internet.....

Re:hmmmm

[ScrewMaster (602015)]

Maybe, but that's what we pay DARPA to do, when you get right down to it.

People come up with nifty toys all the time. It's part of living in a high-tech society. The problem comes in when law-enforcement substitutes ineffective technological measures for quality police work.

Plate Capture technology

[kilodelta (843627)]

Do you want to know what it is being used for? I'll tell you, revenue generation. The city of Providnce, RI recently changes the rules regarding parking tickets. It used to be that if you had five or more you might find your car booted. Now it's two tickets and it's not the police doing the booting, but a private company.

I've seen the vehicle, it's a mini-van with cameras mounted at the top of both A pillars and pointing outward and a little above curb level. When they spot a vehicle the put on a boot with a keypad. To get the boot off you have to call the 800 number, pay on average $350 then remove the boot and return it to the police department.

The other little thing that went into effect were tons of new parking meters. The one thing right about that is the kiosk system, no individual meters. It prints a ticket that you place in your car. And it takes credit cards. The kiosk is also run via solar power and uses a MESH network connection.

So not all those technologies are used to spy per se, but as revenue generation tools.

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[Holi (250190)]

all that and yet still no overnight parking. So glad I have a driveway.

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[b0s0z0ku (752509)]

To get the boot off you have to call the 800 number, pay on average $350 then remove the boot and return it to the police department.

Might be cheaper to cut off the boot with an oxy-acet, and just eat the cost of one new wheel. "What boot?"

They just love their toys, don't they?

[Newer Guy (520108)]

Problem is, toys can't replace common sense or good old walking the beat crime fighting. Besides, many more people get killed in a month from car accidents then all that got killed on 9/11. I'll also bet that property damage in a year from those accidents far exceeds the property damage done on 9/11. Yet we spend BILLIONS on terrorism, and practicallly nothing on making cars safer (in fact, the cars of today are less safe-look at how well the bumpers don't work on new cars). Or, look at health insurance. If they put those billions into making sure the 30 million uninsured people in this country had health care, many more people would live then died on 9/11. Look, I'm not trying to devalue what happened on 9/11. It was terrible! BUT our priorities are really f**ked up! The military can't fix the big problems in this country. We need to use our money on basics, not toys! I don't know about you, but my money pays for food and lodging for my family before I buy a wide screen TV with it. Of course, Halliburton isn't in the health care business either.

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[woobieman29 (593880)]

Perhaps you have noticed a trend during this time toward larger, heavier vehicles? Then there are all the electronic safety features available on modern cars like ABS, airbags, traction/stability control, tire pressure monitoring, lane departure warning, active roll bars, etc.

So please tell me, what is it about the larger, heavier vehicles that makes them safer? Is it the increased braking distance? Perhaps the slower handling? Maybe the fact that the taller ones tip over easier? Or maybe you are just referring to the extra protection provided by 2 more tons of steel wrapped around you - in that case you realize of course that the extra steel might afford you a bit of extra protection, but only at the expense of increased damage to the family in the Honda that you just hit?

Let'

Once we are all in chains

[ThatsNotPudding (1045640)]

then we will all be free.

Spy Tech?

[nurb432 (527695)]

Sounds almost like a get-smart episode.

One step solution

[Nazlfrag (1035012)]

Problem - Solution:
Overbearing satellites - sombrero
Nanohelicopters - fly swatter
Towers, sensors and radar - pantomime horse outfit
Ranged finger and iris scans - sunglasses and gloves

One step solution: Pantomime horse wearing sunglasses, gloves and a sombrero carrying a fly swatter.

police

[syedelyas (1159799)]

so the police can stay at their office in good and relax while watching the crime would happen and eating popcorn. i think the police will get more fatter and lazy :D

Re:not wrong

[ScrewMaster (602015)]

The occupant of Air force one ?

Well, and now we know why he believes he's above the law.

Re: "a myriad" eh?

[foobsr (693224)]

"usage: Recent criticism of the use of myriad as a noun, both in the plural form myriads and in the phrase a myriad of, seems to reflect a mistaken belief that the word was originally and is still properly only an adjective. As the entries here show, however, the noun is in fact the older form, dating to the 16th century. The noun myriad has appeared in the works of such writers as Milton (plural myriads) and Thoreau (a myriad of), and it continues to occur frequently in reputable English. There is no reason to avoid it."

http://m-w.com/dictionary/myriad [m-w.com] (Definition of myriad from the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary)

A problem with information on 'the Internets' is that there are chances that the quality of the sources are not always properly assessed.

CC.

Re:

[TheGavster (774657)]

My source, the Liddel & Scott Greek Lexicon ...

Not knowing the relative authority of either source, the one about modern English trumps the one about ancient Greek in my book.

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[ScrewMaster (602015)]

I say we go with "plethora" or "vast cornucopia" instead.

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[s4m7 (519684)]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grammar_Nazi [wikipedia.org]

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[Dunbal (464142)]

It IS a noun. It is also an adjective. Please check your facts before trying to correct others.

myriad [reference.com] /mrid/ [mir-ee-uhd]

-noun
1. a very great or indefinitely great number of persons or things.
2. ten thousand.
-adjective
3. of an indefinitely great number; innumerable: the myriad stars of a summer night.
4. having innumerable phases, aspects, variations, etc.: the myriad mind of Shakespeare.
5. ten thousand.
Origin: 1545-55; Gk myriad- (s. of myriás) ten thousand; see -ad1

Also interesting:

Usa

A very small myriad

[wsanders (114993)]

"A myriad" can refer to a very small myriad. As in,

"All this expensive crap has a myriad of uses compared to good old fashioned police work."

Thats "a great myriad" to you Pal

[RenderSeven (938535)]

Hey, it took millions of Egyptians to built the Great Myriads, and if they want to noun them thats there write.

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[alshithead (981606)]

Ow! I have found it best not to nitpick grammar and spelling on Slashdot. There are plenty of folks here who are very intelligent and be's not the bestest fo speelers or grammaticistists. I think it's best to judge the content not the occasional misuse of a word or spelling. Also, some of the world's best educated in English seem to peruse Slashdot and they WILL hold you to your own standards and put you in your place if you try to be a grammar Nazi and you are actually...WRONG! That is part of the evo

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[dbIII (701233)]

Also it's an international site so you get people that try to correct the spelling of "aluminium" or "colour" because they don't have a clue that you are writing in english and not american. The language of the net is broken english and we also get people that redefine words for the purposes of their own arguments (eg. RMS and free - but there are a lot of people in US academia that appear to do this so he probably thought it was standard practice).

I'm never going to bother to spellcheck a slashdot post an

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[ScrewMaster (602015)]

Well, if current trends in surveillance and invasive micro-management of society continue, at some point an enemy state wouldn't need to go to war to take us over. They'd just replace a few key button pushers and we'd be pwned.

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[Kingrames (858416)]

To take it a step further...

George Washington was considered a terrorist, was not involved in a political party, and in his farewell address warned us against taking side in political parties and never to let them control the bureaucracy.