Perilous

Posted a follow-up today to our story last week on military-style equipment and local police in the United States. This one has a Texas connection. Don’t forget to search our database of surplus military gear given to law enforcement agencies in California by the millions.

Image: Air Force Sgt. Chris Hibben

At the Center for Investigative Reporting, we obtained 14,000 rows of data describing surplus military equipment given to police in California since the 1990s. Read our story and search the data in an interactive viz. 

“Information sharing” became the most popular and oft-used phrase after Sept. 11 to describe the need for authorities to better-swap tips about possible terrorist threats. But each time the government creates a new database and signs up law-enforcement users in droves to search it, a new privacy vulnerability exists for everyday Americans. Just ask this Minnesota woman who happened to be born attractive and had her driver’s license record searched 425 times by 104 officers at 18 different agencies. Surely this is not what the 9/11 Commission meant by improved information sharing.

Image: Stock.Xchng/D3ATHW01F6

Who’s ready for a game of Mad Libs? Well, it’s actually the federal law enforcement version of Mad Libs. The folks over at legal blog Volokh Conspiracy got their hands on a blank search-and-seizure warrant application, which offers all kinds of opportunities for great fun. Tape the official-looking document to a friend’s front door with the crudely scrawled note, “We’ll be back in the morning.” Sure to get a laugh! Or a panicked meltdown. According to Volokh blogger Orin Kerr, the warrant forms are only for “ages four and up.”

Blank search warrant application

Capitalizing on one of the fastest-growing trends in law enforcement, a private California-based company has compiled a database bulging with more than 550 million license-plate records on both innocent and criminal drivers that can be searched by police.

The technology has raised alarms among civil libertarians, who say it threatens the privacy of drivers. It’s also evidence that 21st-century technology may be evolving too quickly for the courts and public opinion to keep up. The U.S. Supreme Court is only now addressing whether investigators can secretly attach a GPS monitoring device to cars without a warrant.

A ruling in that case has yet to be handed down, but a telling exchange occurred during oral arguments. Chief Justice John Roberts asked lawyers for the government if even he and other members of the court could feasibly be tracked by GPS without a warrant. Yes, came the answer. 

Meanwhile, police around the country have been affixing high-tech scanners to the exterior of their patrol cars, snapping a picture of every passing license plate and automatically comparing them to databases of outstanding warrants, stolen cars and wanted bank robbers.

But when a license plate is scanned, the driver’s geographic location is also recorded and saved, along with the date and time, each of which amounts to a record or data point. Such data collection occurs regardless of whether the driver is a wanted criminal, and the vast majority are not.The units work by sounding an in-car alert if the scanner comes across a license plate of interest to police, whereas before, patrol officers generally needed some reason to take an interest in the vehicle, like a traffic violation.

See the rest of my story published this morning here.

Image: Steve Reed, Arden Fair Mall

After months of work, my reporting partner Andrew Becker and I are live with another story about the war on terror. A shorter version appears today on the Newsweek/Daily Beast site. The complete story can be found here, accompanied by a full package of amazing multimedia material assembled with help from our incomparable team at the Center for Investigative Reporting. There’s a map, a timeline and a slideshow of photos from our reporting trips to Chicago and Fargo. (Follow the center on Tumblr while you’re at it.) Here’s a glimpse of the story:

More than ever before, local police across the U.S. have transformed into small army-like forces using billions in grants from the federal government. With body armor and other tactical apparel, many officers now look more like combat troops serving in Iraq and Afghanistan than cops on the beat. The list of equipment purchased by even small towns reads like a defense-contractor catalog: assault rifles, flash grenades, even tanks and surveillance drones. And they are expanding their stockpiles, despite, in many cases, the lack of an apparent need. 

Image: Nolan Wells