--- From: "Danny Yavuzkurt" <ayavuzkat_private> To: <declanat_private> Subject: Local cops get access to state database Date: Wed, 8 Jan 2003 16:42:05 -0500 Interesting article from my local newspaper, the Centre Daily Times, today, about our county providing all local PDs with access to the Pennsylvania Justice Network, which apparently (though I'd never heard of it before) has all sorts of information about PA citizens in it, including driver's license photos, place of residence, criminal history, etc.. one of the more interesting tidbits from the article comes near the end, where they mention that they can access the database to find people whose driver's license photos resemble the description of suspects for a crime, who they can then call in for questioning.. I wonder if this includes facial recognition software?.. speculatively, they could get a person to give a police artist info on who they think they saw, then compare the created image with the database, and find matching faces.. otherwise, I'm kind of puzzled as to how they could sort through 10 million faces fast enough to find suspects.. I guess this, like a lot of (limited) LE databases, is a double-edged sword.. they find the suspects faster, get them off the street faster, solve crimes faster, but can also find and use information about *anyone* faster.. of course, they do mention that there are 'repercussions' for anyone using it for unauthorized purposes.. but still.. who watches the watchers?.. I'm already skeptical about local PD chief Tom King's motives, he's been known for supporting public surveillance cameras in downtown State College in the past, and seems to have little concern for the public's privacy... -Danny http://www.centredaily.com/mld/centredaily/4899094.htm Posted on Wed, Jan. 08, 2003 County offers formidable tool to help crimefighters By Lara Brenckle lbrencklat_private BELLEFONTE - The Centre County Board of Commissioners agreed Tuesday to let the county oversee one of the most powerful crime fighting tools of the last decade. In approving a memorandum of understanding, Centre County agreed to provide local police departments with access to JNet. The program will be overseen by the county's criminal justice planning office. JNet is the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Justice Network, a secure Internet-based system that puts an individual's criminal background, driver's license photos and protection-from-abuse orders at an officer's fingertip. Officers can access information statewide from their desktops. "What used to take days to request now takes minutes," Bruce Kline, a representative from Penn State Police, told the commissioners. Gene Lauri, the county's director of criminal justice planning, said most of the information accessed through JNet has always been available, just never this quickly. [...] ------------------------------------------------------------------------- POLITECH -- Declan McCullagh's politics and technology mailing list You may redistribute this message freely if you include this notice. To subscribe to Politech: http://www.politechbot.com/info/subscribe.html This message is archived at http://www.politechbot.com/ Declan McCullagh's photographs are at http://www.mccullagh.org/ ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Like Politech? Make a donation here: http://www.politechbot.com/donate/ Recent CNET News.com articles: http://news.search.com/search?q=declan -------------------------------------------------------------------------
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