BPD Commissioner William Gross has had a bad few days. Last week, ACLU Massachusetts sued the city of Boston for using “a system—nicknamed the ‘gang packet’—which awards points for choice of clothes and social media selfies, and [is] used to designate ‘gang affiliation’ without any accompanying allegations of criminal activity,” according a Guardian article […]
CRIPPLED EPISTEMOLOGY
Boston researchers have spent years helping government agencies plan and simulate operations to troll potential terrorists. Despite controversial practices and lackluster results, the covert operations continue.
CAUGHT ON CAM-SHARE
BPD seeks access to private security cameras, experiments with new surveillance network The Boston Police Department wants to deputize your surveillance system. After a crime, police canvass for private security cameras. Sometimes, they obtain a warrant for the tapes or data, or simply ask for the owner’s consent to access footage. But since last November, […]
WATCHING BOSTON
The true beginning of a false narrative: an investigation into the Hub’s Neighborhood Watch Eight days after 16-year-old Norman Hawkesworth shot and killed Stephen Lanigan, John Winston found the murder weapon — a .22 caliber long pistol — while jogging in West Roxbury and contacted the police. According to Suffolk County court documents, Hawkesworth had feigned injury, laying on a […]
FLAME WAR
Council greenlights social media surveillance despite lack of BPD transparency With the dawn of a new kind of surveillance upon us, it’s critical to trace the advent of social media monitoring in Mass back to its roots. There is a demonstrable history of the Boston Police Department and other city agencies utilizing sophisticated observation methods, […]