July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Tickets On Sale Now

Drunk driving is bad. It just is. On a mission to fight this problem, Alcohoot has created ‘the world’s first enforcement-grade smartphone breathalyzer.’

Alcohoot is a device that plugs in your smartphone and measures your blood alcohol concentration (BAC). It uses platinum grade fuel cell sensors, the same technology used by police, along with a pressure sensor, mouthpiece, and mobile application to help people monitor their drinking.

Let’s say you are celebrating a friend’s birthday with pitchers of margaritas. Those tasty lime concoctions can pack quite a punch, and you realize after a few rounds that driving to dinner across down may not be the wisest choice. Whip out Alcohoot, check your BAC, and let actual numbers (rather than the illusion of sobriety) dictate your next move.

The app has tools to monitor your booze levels throughout the night. You can see as your alcohol level goes up or down and track your boozing over longer periods of time. The ‘quantified-self’ movement has led people to obsessively watch their heart rate, sleep patterns, calorie burn, steps taken, and eating habits. Why not our alcohol consumption? Data can lead to insights that can help people who want to lead a healthier lifestyle.

Beyond data, Alcohoot also provides actionable assistance for when you’ve had one too many. The app connects you to nearby restaurants and taxi services so you can grab that anchoring burrito or safely go home to bed when needed. Whenever Alcohoot needs calibration, the company will mail the user a calibrated device with a pre-paid return shipping label, and you just swap them out.

The manufacturing and design happens in Tel Aviv, Israel and is built to conform with FDA and Department of Transportation requirements for breath alcohol testers to ensure accurate results.

Alcohoot is conducting its own crowdfunding campaign to raise $75,000 for the first batch, which will ship in September 2013. Founder Ben Biron said that the law enforcement breathalyzers can cost $800, while Alcohoot is just $75. Check out this video below.

Photo Credits: Alcohoot

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Tickets On Sale Now

New York City police are starting to get more tech savvy. Recently, the NYPD created a task force to stop the theft of iOS devices and created a strict social media policy for cops.

Now the NYPD is taking another step toward tech relevancy by distributing customized Android phones to police officers, the New York Times reports. These phones can’t make or receive calls, but they can access criminal records and all sorts of other data, including people with open warrants, arrest records, apartments with high incident reports, registered gun owners, DMV records, and criminal mug shots.

Having access to police records on the go can help officers make better decisions when they are patrolling and can help them identify suspects easier. Officer Tom Donaldson, for example, sometimes canvasses the Lincoln Houses on Park Avenue and uses records on his phone to decide where he should be strolling.

“You can see that in this one 14-story building there are thousands and thousands of records,” Officer Donaldson told the Times. “If I see that in the last month, there have been six arrests on the seventh floor for drug trafficking, maybe I want to hang out on the seventh floor for a while.”

Starting with a rollout last summer, about 400 of these phones have been given to police officers to date. The phones are much easier to use than the laptops that are installed in 2,500 patrol cars around the city. Internet access on these laptops can be sluggish, and officers have to use multiple passwords to access different databases. Plus, the phones are usually more helpful than talking with a dispatcher.

“Our dispatcher will tell us if they have a warrant or not but it’s a simple yes or no answer,” said Officer Donaldson said. “I don’t know if the guy is wanted for murder or for not paying a parking summons. We rarely know. Now we know.”

NYPD image via Dave Hosford/Flickr

Cops, like just about everyone else, can be really bad at social networks. They say offensive things, post photos of convicts, and actively disclose that they’re police officers. (If you’ve seen End of Watch, then you know why that can be a bad idea.)

The situation has gotten so bad for police officers in New York City that the NYPD has issued a set of rules governing officers’ use of Facebook and Twitter, reports the New York Daily News, which got a hold of a leaked memo detailing the rules.

The main idea: Don’t be stupid.

Under the new rules, officers are forbidden from posting photos of crime scenes, communicating with witnesses, and friending or following minors. Basically, they aren’t allowed to do anything while on social networks that they wouldn’t do while off social networks.

Besides the more obvious regulations, the NYPD’s rules sound a lot like those of most companies: If you divulge that you’re a part of an organization on social networks,  you have to make it clear that your views don’t represent those of that organization. (If that sounds familiar, then it’s because it’s already a very common disclaimer in Twitter bios — “My Tweets are my own”, etc.)

Cops are a bit different, however, because their job demands a great deal of discretion. Want to be an undercover cop one day? Then it’s probably best not to tell everyone on the entire Internet that you’re a police officer. Even thugs have Facebook accounts.

Photo: Sean Ludwig/VentureBeat

How does social media get into the middle of a police shootout? When local law enforcement asks the media to stop using Twitter to report the news — and makes that request with a tweet.

The San Bernadino district attorney’s office relayed a message from the sheriff’s office, stemming from concerns that the accuracy of a reporter’s live-tweeting could actually aid alleged murderer Christopher Dorner, who reportedly shot at and injured two police during the shootout today. But such information is breaking news, and nowadays, Twitter is a hub for breaking news.

The tweet from the DA read, “The sheriff has asked all members of the press to stop tweeting immediately. It is hindering officer safety. #Dorner”

Dorner, a disgruntled former police officer with the Los Angeles Police Department, recently shot and killed three individuals and has since been on the run. For a number of days police were hoping tips from locals would lead them to the suspect, and they responded to a report of a woman tied up in a Bear Bear, Calif., cabin. Officers surrounded the cabin this afternoon, leading to the shootout (which has since become a standoff). At the time of this report, the standoff is still in progress, and police are asking Dorner to end the fight and turn himself in.

A number of reporters were tweeting about the situation, including a local reporter for the Riverside Press-Enterprise who was listening to a police scanner. The tweets reported up-to-the-minute activities of those on the scene, including police plans on how to get the wounded officers out of the “kill zone.”

The Press-Enterprise responded with a tweet saying it would comply with the request and no longer tweet any tactical information.

Whether the officer injuries and the tweets are connected is unknown. We’ve reached out to the San Bernadino’s DA office and will update when we hear back.

Image via CBS live stream

So, it’s possible that maybe a few of my tips might have led to the alleged escape of 69 convicts from multiple state and federal prisons. Some “unnamed person,” who is most certainly not I, apparently gave these ne’er-do-wells a proven method to escape prison, which they used to great effect during completely unrelated prison riots started across the country.

I, of course, know nothing about this and am completely innocent. After all, is there a citizen who could possibly be more upstanding than I am? No, there couldn’t. And to prove that, I am going to provide you fine police officers out there with some advice for recapturing those criminals. Isn’t that nice of me?

Without further ado, I bring you the gaming school of policing.

Lesson 1: Catching those fugitive monkeys after the apes escape

The first step in restoring order should no doubt be recapturing those criminals (the ones you let escape, you over glorified mall cop). And who better to show you how to do your job than Spike? What’s that, you say? He’s only 12-years-old? Let me ask you something: How many fugitive monkeys have you caught? None? That’s funny — the 12-year-old has caught over 200. Perhaps you should listen.

Now, the first thing you’ll need is a weapon, but if you were competent with a pistol, no one would have escaped in the first place. No, you’ll need something else — something a Neanderthal like yourself could use, like a club. And the finesse of a butterfly net would be a perfect complement to its brute force. It’ll be easy. Just club them and stuff them in your oversized net. You’ll have a van full of unconscious (and possibly dead) criminals in no time! And I wouldn’t worry too much about any lawsuits. Police brutality is just a myth, anyway.

Lesson 2: Cracking down with a vengeance

Strength in numbers is not a myth, however. Catching all of those gangsters isn’t going to be easy if all you’re using is a stick and a butterfly net stolen from a little girl. Hopefully, you’ll be ready to move up to a weapon that is a little less … pathetic. Our advanced technology thankfully affords officers of the law new possibilities like superpowers!

Yes, you too can now recapture those villainous … erm … villains with your new cybernetically enhanced suit, which gives you the strength of 50 men, the skill of 100 assassins, and the speed of some guy from Jamaica or something. All enemies of the state will be within your grasp! All you need to do is drop by the Agency and apply for our super-agent program. You’ll be fitted for a suit and will be mopping the floor with those lawbreakers in no time.  No, literally. I mean you’ll actually have to mop the floor after the last batch of test subje — willing participants in this program experienced a few small, insignificant side effects. Homicidal rampages, excessive use of force, megalomania, obsessive compulsive behavior, hallucinations of “orbs” floating around the city … but nothing serious.

I’m sure those kinks have been worked out by now.

Lesson 3: Don’t let sleeping dogs lie

By now, you’re probably thinking, “Everything is under control. The city is safe, and my job is done.” Well, no. Good job wiping out crime and all, but you only cleaned the surface. The dirty underside is still there, festering like a 40-day-old chicken salad sandwich that I may or may not have left in your fridge. They’ll rise up when you least expect it and bring chaos to the streets.

That would be bad … for you. I get paid regardless.

But since I’m not too keen on murders and thieves rampaging through the streets, I’ll give you some advice. Everyone is going to run away from you with that armor on, and that can’t happen. You’re going to need to go undercover. Get a new name and occupation — maybe even a new face. John Notacop, professional enforcer and bodyguard. Yeah, no one will suspect that.

You’ll be able to rise through the criminal world nearly unopposed, eliminating and arresting all who would question your motives. Nearly all of the remaining gang lords will be within your grasp, and they’ll only be a dramatic confrontation away. A few tense moments, a couple of gunshots, and a few good blows to the head, and they’ll be yours. The only thing left to do is deliver their mutilated corp — I mean, lifeless bod — err, completely unharmed persons to the authorities.

Lesson 4: Reducing grand theft auto rates

It may be a bit early to say, but I believe that your city is now the perfect metropolis, full of well-to-do citizens and upstanding working class urbanites. The streets are no doubt paved with gold, and a rainbow is permanently etched into the skyline. The denizens of your utopian society are all kind and thoughtful, and many of them are even great intellectuals and scholars. Yes, there’s a new “happiest place on earth.”

What’s that? Do you mean to tell me that none of that is true? The taxpayers found out about the millions of dollars spent on supersuits? You’re encountering police brutality lawsuits? And you murdered a gang lord? Gang lords? You should be ashamed of yourself! But you’ll have to feel sorry about it later.

Right now, criminals are infecting your fair city, corrupting everything they touch with bloodlust and greed. They’ve amassed an arsenal of concealable weapons: rocket launchers hidden in their pants (not a sex joke), death-dealing helicopters that out materialize out of thin air, vibrating sex toys … and I wish that one was a joke.

But here you are, probably rotting in one of the recently vacated prisons, contemplating your rise and fall — a pity party of one. This is no time for reflection. It’s time for (more) action! After reading this excellently written article (whose author, for legal reasons, can’t be named) and breaking out of prison, the most important task at hand becomes assembling a police force. I’m sure you’re fairly used to being an army of one by now, but unfortunately, that just won’t work anymore. The criminals have become smarter, and they’re not going down without a fight.

You’ll need a handpicked task force — nothing but the best. I recommend overweight, trigger-happy lunatics bent on killing every last lawbreaker. They should also like donuts because it’s funny. Then, if they experience any problems with bringing those outlaws to justice, you can make fun of their weight. Consequently, they’ll become enraged and take it out on those fugitives, thereby ridding the city of evil.

You get to make fun of someone, and they stop being useless. Everybody wins.

Lesson 5: Using unnecessary force on the Third Street Saints

This is clearly your fault, but I suppose not everyone can carry out plans as competently as I can. No, you’ve utterly and completely failed to restore order and spent millions of the taxpayers’ dollars so that you could recapture criminals who escaped because of your incompetence. It didn’t have to come to this, but the city can’t be allowed to remain in this state. The siege must be ended and the war won. It’s time to bring out the real muscle.

Unfortunately, few gangs and mercenary groups want to cooperate with “the fuzz,” so we’ll just have to settle for the technologically advanced, wholly psychotic military group intent on wiping all gangs from the face of the earth. Yes, I know it’s hardly an equal substitute, but they’ll make do for now. And after declaring martial law, they should have no trouble cleaning up your mess. Of course, you may find a few dissenters who claim that your new team is using “unnecessary force” and are “batsh*t crazy murders,” but those people have a tendency of disappearing unexpectedly … in mysterious circumstances … with no witnesses.

Moving on, a few things might change once the army moves in to your neighborhood, such as the sky permanently darkening because of the enormous flying carrier blocking the sun and Big Brother forever watching you (by the way, don’t look over your shoulder). It may take time to adjust, but stand tall, officer! You’ve completed the gaming school of policing and can stand up to any threat. Unless it happens to include mimes. Then you’re screwed. Mimes will **** you up.

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“Big data” to the rescue.

Now that at least some cities have open public data, anyone with a little programming skill, the inclination to use it, and the burning desire to know, can check. For instance, if the distribution of when tickets are issued is heavy at the end of the month, that could be a sign of quotas that need to be filled.

That’s exactly what Robert Picard, a university student and intern at alternative search engine DuckDuckGo,  did, grabbing a public dataset of tickets issued from 2009 to 2011 in Baltimore. I talked to him this afternoon.

“The original dataset is about two million tickets,” he told me. “I live in Jacksonville, but used data from Baltimore because it was the only place I found any.”

After removing traffic camera tickets (which wouldn’t be affected by quotas, theoretically) as well as correcting for more frequent dates and the fact that only eight months have 31 days, Picard graphed the remaining tickets in a normalized view. The normalized view shows positive (above the line) when more tickets are issued than an expected average, and negative (below the line) when fewer tickets are issued than expected.

Source: Robert Picard

Above the line is more tickets issued than a straight average, below the line is fewer tickets issued.

The data certainly shows a lumpiness. It doesn’t show an average number of tickets issued on each day or in each week. In fact, the date shows more tickets issued near the end of the month — and the beginning of the month.

A possible explanation:

Departments have quotas, and officers do rush to fill it, and that enthusiasm or emphasis carries over into the first week or so of the next month, at which point officers forget about tickets for a while until they are reminded again in the last week of the month.

That’s conceivable, Picard told me, but it’s just one hypothesis. Based on the data alone, he couldn’t really say with certainty why more tickets were being issued on those dates.

Ultimately, I guess, big data can’t answer all questions, and a full explanation has to go beyond the data to the rationale behind behavior.

photo credit: Thomas Hawk via photopin cc

And whether or not you believe that Kim Dotcom’s file-sharing business MegaUpload was a legal business or a thin front for profiteering from piracy, a New Zealand judge has just ruled that at least part of the search and seizure that resulted in the destruction of MegaUpload’s business and the arrest of Dotcom himself was illegal.

Oops.

One aspect of the search and seizure mission involved taking and cloning the hard drives of 135 computers in Dotcom’s $30 million mansion, under the authority of a general warrant. And that, says the judge, was over the line.

“These categories of items were defined in such a way that they would inevitably capture within them both relevant and irrelevant material. The police acted on this authorisation. The warrants could not authorise seizure of irrelevant material, and are therefore invalid.”

The current home page of MegaUpload.com

As has been well documented, American and New Zealand authorities arrested Dotcom, impounded his house, initiated an extradition request, and shut down MegaUpload.com. The site allegedly facilitated the piracy of more than $500 million of content through tactics like this.

The current legal wrinkle in the Dotcom case is not likely to end the MegaUpload founder’s legal woes. But it is one ray of sunshine for the embattled entrepreneur, arriving soon after Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak showed sympathy for his situation.

One thing is certain: Lawyers are making a lot of money off intellectual property cases. Dotcom will be lucky to have anything left of his considerable fortune by the time this legal mess is cleaned up.

Of course, if you’re a movie company executive, you’d say he’ll be lucky to have his freedom.

Image credit: ShutterStock

IPv6 might be good for the Internet, but it’s throwing a wet blanket on law enforcement work, the FBI says.

Internet Protocol version 6, as it’s properly called, is going to save the web from running out of addresses. In the current version, IPv4, we only have 4.3 billion addresses to issue to every web-connected device, including smartphones.

That supply was set to run out, but IPv6 will create a huge number of addresses and stave off disaster for another few years at least (God willin’ and the crick don’t rise).

However, the glut of new addresses poses problems for FBI agents and other law enforcement officials who need to conduct investigations on the web to thwart, say, terrorists and child pornographers.

In fact, an FBI spokesperson told Cnet, IPv6 will likely “have a profound effect on law enforcement,” perhaps requiring some new tools and software for hunting down the baddies out there on the web.

Law enforcement at all levels frequently send requests for information to Internet service providers and web-based companies, but the IPv6 changes will make responding to those requests a longer, more difficult process. ISPs and web services will have to gather and store much more information on individual customers and devices, such as source ports, addresses, and times.

Not only does this require more storage space (ergo more expense) for the ISPs and web companies; it’s also unlikely to sit well with privacy organizations and many consumers.

World IPv6 Day is coming up next week, and IPv6 adoption has been heating up over the past several months. Last November, we reported that IPv6 adoption had skyrocketed by 1,900 percent, largely due to GoDaddy’s efforts.

IPv6 adoption is a key issue for computer networks, but remember, not all computers look like computers these days. The “Internet of Things,” the network of tablets, smart TVs, web-connected refrigerators, talking robot dogs, etc., depends on having enough IP addresses to go around, and it depends on IPv6 to become a reality.

Pirate Bay learned from its first brush with the law. “Those who are aware of the site’s history know that without a few essential keystrokes in May 2006, The Pirate Bay may not have been here today. When Pirate Bay founder TiAMO heard that something was amiss, he decided to make a full backup of the site before heading off to the data center, where he was greeted by dozens of police officers,” reports file sharing news site TorrentFreak.

The service recently switched from torrents to magnet links for sharing files between users, meaning the entire site is now small enough to store on a conventional thumb drive. It has also put in place a number of failsafes like backup domains and different servers across the globe.

The site recently moved from a .ORG domain to prevent American authorities from pursuing legal action. But the switch to a SE. domain seems to have opened  the door to a new confrontation with local authorities in Sweden.

With typical flair, the team behind Pirate Bay left a message for Swedish law enforcement. “We’re staying put where we are. We’re going no-where. But we have a message to Hollywood, the investigators and the prosecutors: LOL.”

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Tickets On Sale Now

A U.S. federal appeals court ruled today that police officers can search a cell phone without a warrant.

The searches are to be limited to the device’s number; having the number enables officers of the law to request other, more specific information from carriers, such as call histories.

The case involved a drug bust in Indiana, where police used the numbers of cell phones found on the scene of a drug bust to track down and link together key players in a drug ring.

While the judges sitting on the appeals court panel said that obtaining a cell phone number from a cell phone without a warrant was akin to getting a personal address from a pocket diary without a warrant (which is also legal), they drew the line at doing any other kind of warrantless gadget search.

Also at play, both attorneys and judges in the case noted, are matters of remote data destruction (on the part of alleged criminals, who are often able to erase all data on a cell phone remotely, wiping it clean of evidence) and remote observation via webcams or mobile cameras (on the part of law enforcement, who could end up using gadgets for warrantless surveillance if unchecked).

“Lurking behind this issue is the question whether and when a laptop or desktop computer, tablet, or other type of computer (whether called a ‘computer’ or not) can be searched without a warrant,” Judge Richard Posner wrote in the court’s decision.

Ultimately, that issue is still at play.

“As far as I can tell, Judge Posner seems to have some sort of graduated scale in mind, in which minimally intrusive searches of phones are okay as a routine matter incident to arrest but more extensive searches require more justification or maybe a warrant,” wrote law blogger Orin Kerr in an analysis of the decision on the renowned law blog The Volokh Conspiracy.

Kerr concludes that while technology is still evolving too rapidly for many hard-and-fast rules to be written, he sees this type of search requiring a Supreme Court decision in the near future. Kerr himself feels that “searches of electronic storage devices should be allowed under the search incident to arrest exception if there is reason to believe evidence of the crime of arrest will be found on the phone, but not allowed if there is no such evidence.”

Image courtesy of Felix Mizioznikov, Shutterstock

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Tickets On Sale Now

For geeks, small head-mounted cameras streaming to iPhones seem like cool, sci-fi inspired gadgetry. For cops, they may be the best way to record incidents, avoid lawsuits, and stay one step ahead of disastrous PR and public outrage.

The Axon Flex camera on a pair of Oakley sunglasses.

On Tuesday, police-tech company Taser, maker of the eponymous electroshock guns, announced its latest on-officer camera system for law enforcement. The cameras mount on Oakley sunglasses and have companion Android and iOS mobile apps. The first people to get the new technology are none other than the 150 patrol officers on the troubled Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) force.

On-dashboard car cameras were considered advanced when they first came out. But the technology has evolved and shrunk over the years, and while law enforcement isn’t known for being ahead of the technological curve (the San Francisco Police Department still takes statements on carbon paper), Taser thinks the time for on-officer cameras and digital video has arrived.

The new wearable-camera system, Axon Flex, is Taser’s second try at wearable cameras and will work with the company’s companion cloud storage system for managing the resulting videos, Evidence.com.

Changing course, quickly

The people at Taser are fast learners. After rolling out its first foray into the wearable-camera market just last year (an earlier on-Taser camera didn’t take off), the 19-year-old company quickly realized drastic changes were needed to how it was designing and producing the still-new gear.

“Everyone we talk to gets it, that we want the camera on the officer,” Taser CEO Patrick Smith told VentureBeat. “People can see it coming, and we think we’re at the inflection point right now.”

Taser's first, bulky camera system.

The first iteration, called the Taser Axon, was bulky, uncomfortable, a bit dorky looking, and made almost entirely by Taser. To a generation of iPhone users, the large handheld viewer immediately jumped out as unnecessary and dated. “It was too clunky, too early,” said Smith.

The company went back to the drawing board and decided to focus on only the things it did best, and to outsource the rest to partners that were already the best in their fields. (Smith said the book “Good to Great” by Tim Collins was his inspiration.)

First there was the cool factor. “Our headgear was slightly more comfortable than braces,” admitted Smith. Officers were unhappy with the way Taser’s custom head-mount looked and felt, so Taser surveyed various members of law-enforcement to find out what brands they really wanted. Ninety percent of officers said they liked sunglasses-maker Oakley. The new system Flex camera mounts via magnet directly onto a custom pair of Oakley Flack Jacket glasses.

For the camera, Taser went to a company called Looxcie that was already making compact, wearable cameras with Bluetooth streaming technology. A few custom modifications were made, including maximizing the cameras for low-light shooting. The cameras shoot 30 frames per second of video at 640-by-480 resolution.

The hulking custom viewer is out, and instead the company has created mobile apps for Android and iOS smartphones and tablets. The video files are stored on the camera itself (up to 8GB) and can only be downloaded using a special mount at the station for chain-of-custody reason. However, the officer can use the Flex Mobile app preview, name, and add notes to the video on any compatible mobile device. The app can also show the camera’s battery and memory status, and Smith says GPS is coming soon.

Taser is working on another Android and iOS mobile app, called Evidence Mobile, that collects digital evidence from a crime scene, including photos, audio notes, and GPS tags.

Cloud storage for the Evidence.com system is now run by Amazon Web Services. Evidence.com is Taser’s ambitious online management solution for all the videos police record. Unlike the DVDs or VHS tapes many precincts still use, digital video stored on a remote server is available to multiple people at any given time.

In the beginning, Taser tried building its own web servers for Evidence.com, but Amazon had already jumped through the hoops and invested time and money to make its service FISA (Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act) compliant. The act outlines tricky government-required procedures for handling electronic surveillance.

Finally, Taser adjusted how it priced and sold the system. Each camera system comes out to about $1000 per officer, but a set pricing structure turned out to a hard sell. Some agencies have an annual budget, others just a one-time chunk of money. Some want to lease equipment, other need to buy it outright. Taser is giving its sales force the flexibility to work with each agency and nail down whatever unique payment structure works for them.

The drastic change in direction was something Taser was lucky enough to be able to fund. The public company has taken all of its profits from the last three years and sunk it into the on-officer camera technology and the Evidence.com digital-asset management system. Though almost two decades old, the company has some fresh, startup blood on its board helping it navigate the new, rapidly changing gadget-waters; Hadi Partovi, former Facebook and Dropbox advisor is a board member.

A history of violence

A BART police officer declaring a protest unlawful.

BART officers will start using the new Flex camera systems at the end of the month. The transit system’s police force has had several unfortunate run-ins in recent years. Officers fatally shot the unarmed Oscar Grant in 2009, an event that was thoroughly documented by nearby passengers with camera-phones. In 2011, BART officers shot a man named Charles Hill, whom officers say was armed with a knife.

Both incidents resulted in public outcry and protests, but the Hill drama took an unexpected turn when BART shut down cell phone service along the train lines to prevent protesters from coordinating locations. Impinging on riders’ civil liberties did what a mere shooting and death couldn’t: it led to much larger protests, international condemnation, and the involvement of Hacker-activist group Anonymous.

If police had captured the Hill shooting on video, and if what the video showed exonerated the two officers, would the incident have still snowballed into a public relations nightmare? If the incident wasn’t on the up-and-up, would the officers have even turned on their cameras?

Cynics, loopholes, and the psychology of being watched

There are still open questions about how the system will work in the field, especially from wary city-dwellers who may think some police are corrupt. Each law-enforcement agency will have to develop its own policies and punishments for officers to ensure they use the new equipment properly and responsibly. The recorded video itself is tamper-proof — a user cannot access, delete, or alter the original file in any way — but the camera still requires an officer to hit the big Record button, and to refrain from turning it off if things are getting out of control.

Studies conducted by law-enforcement organizations point to video-evidence having a positive impact on reducing complaints. A U.S. study of over 3000 officers using in-car cameras found that 93 percent of civilian complaints were dropped or immediately resolved when video evidence was available. Another study, this time of a UK pilot program in which 300 officers used on-person cameras, found complaints dropped 14 percent.

It’s unknown if complaints drop because civilians see recorded evidence and realize they can’t get away with a false complaint, or if officers behave differently when they know they are being recorded. That knowledge may be the difference between an event being “caught” on video, like the Oscar Grant shooting, and by-the-book events being willingly filmed by the police.

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Tickets On Sale Now

The San Francisco police department this weekend admitted that it did in fact help Apple employees search a Bay-area home for a “lost item,” which most reports say was a missing iPhone 5 prototype.

The “lost iPhone 5″ saga began when CNET reported Wednesday that a prototype of the much-hyped device was lost in a San Francisco bar in late July. What was so strange about the news was that an Apple employee lost an iPhone 4 prototype in a bar last year, and that device ended up being purchased by the gadget blog Gizmodo for $5,000. That story ended up on every corner of net not only because the device was highly sought after but also because it was an unprecedented leak for highly secretive Apple.

CNET’s original report of the missing iPhone 5 said that Apple employees along with San Francisco police searched a two-floor, single-family home in SF’s Bernal Heights neighborhood.

Days later, the story took two strange turns. First, a San Francisco police official said the department had no record of an investigation involving a missing Apple product. Then Sergio Calderón, whose home was searched for the lost iPhone, said six people that claimed to be police but weren’t searched his home. This implied that that Apple investigators could have impersonated police, which is a criminal offense.

On Saturday, San Francisco police issued an official statement that contradicted earlier reports, saying it did in fact aid Apple with an investigation. Apple employees asked to not file a report on the “lost item,” which could explain why the department couldn’t find the record when asked about it on Friday.

The police department’s official statement reads:

After speaking with Apple representatives, we were given information which helped us determine what occurred. It was discovered that Apple employees called Mission Police station directly, wanting assistance in tracking down a lost item. Apple had tracked the lost item to a house located in the 500 block of Anderson Street. Because the address was in the Ingleside Police district Apple employees were referred to Officers in the Ingleside district. Four SFPD Officers accompanied Apple employees to the Anderson street home. The two Apple employees met with the resident and then went into the house to look for the lost item. The Apple employees did not find the lost item and left the house.

The Apple employees did not want to make an official report of the lost item.