The Dig - Boston's Only Newspaper
We need lawmakers to intervene. A Congressional hearing will help to expose Amazon’s invasive data harvesting practices and restrict it from acting as a paid informant for the surveillance state.
“Increased patrols do not protect anyone ... they are actively harmful to poor and oppressed people who are routinely harassed, brutalized, and surveilled by the police in Boston and across the country."
For now, the BPD wants to help officers more quickly locate and access footage. However, if the program expands beyond its small introduction—about 13 locations, according to BPD records—it could develop into a centralized surveillance network.
Rather than performing its own evaluation, perhaps using its highly regarded Crime Analysis Unit, Cambridge Police met with the Department of Homeland Security’s Urban Areas Security Initiative, the granting agency, and ShotSpotter to discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the ShotSpotter.
It is through small decisions like this, town by town, that our police departments are slowly changing to look less like the people they serve, and more like occupying armies.
“We’re asking whether we should hand the BPD the capability to … do what exactly? They didn’t say. We need to know before we appropriate funds."
Even the government’s own reports admit that bulk data collection programs have never actually prevented a major violent attack.
Everything you think you know about the new Mass tolls is wrong
Even though it has been 18 years since digital tolling debuted on the Pike, there is still not even a data retention policy.
Last time the surveillance agencies were actually confronted on their assertion that mass surveillance had helped, the agencies’ claims shriveled under scrutiny like an ice-cream in the sun
