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Police Robo Stalkers in a Location Near You

Loaded on March 15, 2021 by Douglas Ankney published in Criminal Legal News April, 2021, page 50

Filed under: Police State-Surveillance. Location: United States of America.

by Douglas Ankney

Today’s RoboCops are not armed predators (yet), but they read license plates, track cellphones, and report “suspicious” persons. According to the Electronic Freedom Frontier, companies like Boston Dynamics and Knightscope market robots to law enforcement. About 100 robots from Knightscope are deployed in America’s shopping malls, grocery stores, neighborhood streets, and other public places. The police department in Huntington Park, California, sent a proposal to the mayor stating each robot has infrared cameras capable of reading license plates, as well as wireless tech “capable of identifying smart phones within its [500-foot] range down to the MAC and IP addresses.” Of course, the data are recorded. In our Orwellian society where some law enforcement personnel unofficially label groups like Black Lives Matter and Antifa as “terrorist organizations,” it’s all too apparent that cops might use robots to record protestors’ cellphone data for future identification and harassment.

The RoboCops are presented to the public as benign and “fun.” Many resemble rolling trash cans. They dance and let you take selfies. But all the while they are gathering and recording information – and they are programmed to report suspicious persons to police. Yet alarmingly it’s unclear what information the robots use to “decide” to report as “suspicious activity.” Do the machines monitor skin tone – the darker the skin the higher the suspicion? And we all are aware that police merely responding to a report of suspicious activity often results in the killing or maiming of unarmed, innocent civilians.

So be aware: The next time you are at the mall, that “trash can” may be watching you, recording you, and reporting you.

Source: eff.org

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