Lawyer representing the city of New York have filed a request for a stay of Judge Scheindlin's decision and court order pending appeal. Scheindlin found components of the NYPD's stop and frisk unconstitutional in her decision and ordered several remedies…
At a press conference today, Attorney General Mike DeWine informed Ohio citizens that a powerful facial recognition system with access to driver's licenses photographs and mug shots went live on June 2.
In exactly what capacity it went live, however, isn't entirely clear. Law enforcement officers and officials in DeWine's office disagree about whether system was in beta testing or fully launched. What is known is that since June 2, police officers have performed 2,600 searches using the new database feature, which scans driver's license photographs and police mug shots and compares them to any image, be it a photograph or a still-frame from a surveillance camera.
The system is designed to take advantage of the increasing prevalence of security cameras. In Cincinnati alone, police already have access to 118 security cameras, but anticipate having access to over 1,000 by the end of 2014. That number doesn't include footage from cameras that law enforcement can acquire when private businesses cooperate in investigations. Anyone with access to the Ohio Law Enforcement Gateway can potentially identify and acquire personal information -- including home addresses or driver's license and social security numbers of strangers.
Last week, DeWine informed The Enquirer that his office didn't believe the public needed to be informed of the system's launch because 26 other states already have such databases in operation. But now, nearly two months after its launch, he is forming an advisory panel of judges, prosecutors, and law enforcement representatives to create rules that will prevent privacy abuses.
Not that DeWine is concerned: "Whether you call it a test phase or don’t call it a test phase, if we find something [wrong], we would change it, and if we find something alarming, we would shut it down," he told The Enquirer. "The fact that over half of states use [facial recognition technology], the fact that the FBI has used it, the fact that we have controls in [the online database] that work in the sense that we could prosecute people...all of those indicate to me that what we have is adequate."
DeWine's confidence in the safeguards of a system which went into operation without his approval is unlikely to mollify the concerns of privacy advocates. In a statement, the ACLU has already called on DeWine to "pull the plug" on the system. "This system needs to be shut down until there are meaningful, documented rules in place to keep this information secure, protect the privacy of innocent people, and prevent government abuse of this new tool," Associate Director Gary Daniels said.
[Image via Ohio Attorney General on Facebook]
Security cameras caught footage of an unknown Florida man stealing two puppies from a pet store by stuffing them into his pants. According to the Miami New Times blog, Orlando Police Department personnel are looking for the man, who stole the two purebred puppies from the Puppy Store on Monday.
The suspect entered the store with a group of people, then tucked a $800 pug puppy into his athletic pants and left the store. He returned moments later and did the same with a miniature dachshund puppy valued at $750.
The group were seen leaving the parking lot in a dark colored Ford Crown Victoria.
Watch video about this story, embedded below via the Miami New Times:
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[image of pug puppy via Shutterstock.com]
U.S. soldiers reportedly raided communal cellblocks at Guantanamo Prison in Cuba and hustled hunger striking inmates at gunpoint into single, maximum security cells on Saturday. According to the Miami Herald, prison authorities conducted the maneuver only hours after International Commitee of the Red Cross personnel left the island and under a complete media blackout.
Prisoners reportedly tried to fight back with improvised weapons, but submitted to guards after four "less-than-lethal" shots were fired. A statement from the prison camp at the U.S. Navy base in Cuba said that there were no serious injuries among guards or detainees.
The action by U.S. forces was an attempt to end a hunger strike by a majority of the camp's 166 inmates that began after a "particularly aggressive" cell search on February 6, said lawyers for the detainees. Reported mistreatment of the Quran prompted inmates to cover security cameras in some areas and block access to food carts for weeks at a time.
The military denied any Quran mistreatment, and said that systematic disobedience of prison rules prompted the raid.
“In order to reestablish proper observation, the guards entered the Camp 6 communal living spaces to transition detainees into single cells, remove obstructions to cameras, windows and partitions, and to assess the medical condition of each detainee,” the prison said.
Simon Schorno of the International Red Cross said that his organization was in no way connected to the raid, and therefore "will not comment on its objectives, the way it was conducted or the detainees' response to it.”
[image via Lilac Mountain / Shutterstock.com]
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