Tech NewsNews

The History Channel is Digging Up John Dillinger’s Body But Nobody Really Knows Why

The History Channel has received a permit to dig up the body of 1930s gangster John Dillinger from his grave at a cemetery in Indiana. Why? Nobody really knows yet. Dillinger became a folk hero for robbing banks as a kind of Robin Hood figure during the Great Depression. And by all accounts, Dillinger was … Continued

Tech NewsPrivacy and Security

Hacker Claims to Be in Possession of Personal Info on Up to 20,000 LAPD Applicants

The Los Angeles Police Department has warned that a hacker is claiming to be in possession of the personal information of roughly 2,500 “officers, trainees, and recruits,” as well as 17,500 other LAPD applicants, NBC Los Angeles reported on Monday. According to NBC Los Angeles, the city’s Information Technology Agency said an unknown individual who … Continued

Tech NewsNews

RCMP Apologizes After Streaming Press Conference on Double Slaying With Cat Filter Activated

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police in British Columbia have apologized after livestreaming a press conference on the murder of an American woman and an Australian man on Facebook Live with an augmented reality “cat filter” turned on, per the Daily Beast. According to BuzzFeed News, Sergeant Janelle Shoihet said during the conference on Friday that … Continued

io9Books & Comics

A Police Union Is Telling Cops to Use the Punisher’s Logo Amid an Investigation Into Racist Social Media Posts

Earlier this year, a group of St. Louis police officers were put on administrative leave after their racist social media posts were resurfaced, prompting the police department to launch an investigation into them. Now, the head of St. Louis’ police union is calling for its members to support their fellow cops by liking themselves to … Continued

Tech NewsPrivacy and Security

Philly Park Officials Criticized for Installing Devices That Blare High-Frequency Noise at Young People

There is growing criticism of Philadelphia officials’ decision to install sonic devices called the Mosquito that constantly emit extremely loud, high-frequency noise from 10:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m. every night designed to be audible only to persons aged 13 to 25, according to a Friday report by NPR’s Morning Edition. The working principle behind the … Continued

io9Books & Comics

The Real Punisher Wants Cops to Stop Pretending They’re the Punisher

Despite the many heroic things he’s done over the years in Marvel’s comics, Frank Castle is, at his core, a particularly deranged vigilante whose sense of justice is so extreme that the proper superheroes he often crosses paths with see him as a more of a problem than an ally. Even the character’s creator, Gerry … Continued

Tech NewsPrivacy and Security

A Single Court-Authorized Wiretap Order in 2018 Swept Up 9.2 Million Intercepts

A single court-authorized wiretap order resulted in authorities in the Southern District of Texas scooping up more than 9.2 million communications—becoming “the federal wiretap with the most intercepts in 2018,” TechCrunch reported on Saturday, citing the federal government’s annual wiretap report. There’s not much more information on the case in the report, other than that … Continued

Tech NewsPrivacy and Security

Minneapolis Police Officer Awarded $585,000 in Suit Over Abuse of State Driver’s License Database

Minneapolis police officer Amy Krekelberg won $585,000 in a jury verdict this week, including $300,000 in punitive damages, after suing the city and two officers over unauthorized access to a government database of driver’s license information, Wired reported. The verdict originates in a 2013 incident in which a Minnesota Department of Natural Resources employee was … Continued

Tech NewsFacebook

Hundreds of Current and Former Law Enforcement Officers Reportedly Found in Extremist Facebook Groups

Hundreds of current and former police officers and other law enforcement personnel are members of “Confederate, anti-Islam, misogynistic or anti-government militia groups” on Facebook, according to an investigation by the U.S. Center for Investigative Reporting’s Reveal News posted on Friday. Reveal’s data is from prior to mid-2018, when Facebook removed a function that allowed downloading … Continued

Tech NewsPrivacy and Security

Software Update Caused Hundreds of Police Ankle Monitors to Go Dark

Like a scene out of a dystopian police state film, a failed software update caused hundreds of ankle monitoring devices in the Netherlands to go dark from police surveillance on Thursday. The Dutch Ministry of Justice and Security released an announcement Friday explaining the digital hiccup that took many suspected and alleged criminals as well … Continued

Tech NewsRobots

Imagine Getting Pulled Over By This Tablet on a Stick

It’s a far cry from the badass cyborg who served and protected the people of Detroit in the movie RoboCop, but this bizarre extending robot can assist with traffic stops and promises to help make such roadside interactions safer for both police officers and motorists. Every year, millions of drivers are pulled over and during … Continued

Tech NewsNews

Cop in Viral Video Acquitted of Assault Charge That Attorney Calls a ‘Facebook Misdemeanor’

Former Miami police officer Mario Figueroa was acquitted of assault yesterday despite a viral video that appeared to show the officer kicking a handcuffed suspect in the head. Figueroa’s attorney argued that the attention around the case made this a “Facebook misdemeanor.” The incident happened in May 2018 after 31-year-old David Suazo stole a Jeep, … Continued

Tech NewsPrivacy and Security

The Feds, Police Are Using Google’s Location History Feature to Track Down Suspects

Law enforcement queries of Google’s massive mobile device Location History database, which employees call Sensorvault, has “risen sharply in the past six months,” the New York Times reported on Saturday, citing sources at the company. It’s not clear how often police ask Google to produce results from the database, which can be used to narrow … Continued

Tech NewsGoogle

Report: Man Arrested for Threatening Google Didn’t Know His Wife Deleted His YouTube Account

A YouTuber arrested on Sunday by Mountain View, California police for suspicion of threatening Google drove all the way from Waterville, Maine to confront staff for allegedly terminating his account on Google subsidiary YouTube—unaware that it was actually his spouse who deleted it, BuzzFeed News reported on Tuesday. According to BuzzFeed, Kyle Long, 33, has … Continued

Tech NewsPrivacy and Security

The NYPD Now Has an Automated Tool to Help Them Recognize Patterns in Crimes

The New York City Police Department has developed a pattern-recognition tool called Patternizr to sort through mountains of files related to “hundreds of thousands of crimes logged in the NYPD’s database,” the Associated Press reported on Sunday. According to the AP, the NYPD says the tool can help analysts working for the department suss out … Continued

Tech NewsNews

Former Cop in Australia Jailed for Using Police Databases to Look Up Tinder Dates

An ex-cop in Western Australia has been jailed for six months for using police databases to snoop on the records of dozens of women he’d encountered on dating sites like Tinder and PlentyOfFish, Australia’s ABC News reported Friday. The man was identified as 48-year-old Adrian Trevor Moore, who had worked for the Western Australia Police … Continued

Tech NewsPrivacy and Security

Man Hiding Face From Police Facial Recognition Test Fined for Telling Cops to ‘Piss Off’

On Thursday, Metropolitan Police trialed a face recognition system in the East London town of Romford. The technology led to three arrests, according to The Independent. One individual was fined after an altercation that reportedly stemmed from his response to the facial recognition technology. Flyers were placed in the area that warned people that law … Continued

Tech NewsNews

Reports: Police Defuse Gas Station Standoff by Having Robot Deliver Vape Pen to Suspect

A six-hour standoff between police and a 40-year-old man who allegedly splashed gasoline on the floor of a Novato, California, convenience store “while threatening to burn it down” and later fled to a nearby Safeway ended when police defused the situation with a robot carrying a vape pen, the Sacramento Bee reported Sunday, citing reports … Continued

io9Books & Comics

Punisher Creator Gerry Conway Says It’s ‘Disturbing’ to See Authority Figures Embrace the Vigilante

Because of Frank Castle’s military background with the Marines and his penchant for enforcing justice using guns, iconography related to the Punisher has become particularly popular amongst certain groups of active law enforcement and those in the armed services. The character’s creator Gerry Conway thinks that’s ill-advised and offensive. In a recent interview with Syfy … Continued

ScienceHealth

Louisiana Cops Forced to Explain That Zika-Tainted Meth Doesn’t Exist After Dumb Prank Backfires

A social media prank concocted by a Louisiana police department over the weekend went unexpectedly viral and began being taken seriously by some, forcing the officers to clarify that—actually—local stockpiles of methamphetamine weren’t tainted with the Zika virus. As reported by The Advocate, the Harahan Police Department crafted one hell of a Facebook post on … Continued