QUOTE OF THE DAY: "“If you don’t think Big Brother is watching you — come on, you’re on the wrong planet,” Sheriff Marcos López said. “This is not the ‘Big Brother’s watching’ concept, but if you are a criminal ... you better believe, we’re going to use every investigative tool to watch you and make sure we suppress that.”
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PASSAGE OF THE DAY: "Fusus, the private public-safety company that provides Osceola County’s new map interface, contracts with agencies statewide, with the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office being among the latest to use the platform, according to a company blog post. An October 2020 tweet also welcomed the Lake County Sheriff’s Office and the St. Cloud Police Department as partner agencies, though it’s unclear if they are still contracted with the company. “This is the future, knocking down those barriers that were out there before and forging relationships with the community,” John O’Grady, a Fusus representative present at Wednesday’s unveiling, told reporters."
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PASSAGE TWO OF THE DAY: "The Sheriff’s Office said it currently only has access to public camera feeds, but López said he hopes the center can eventually access private doorbell cameras powered by Ring, the Amazon-owned home security company that current has partnerships with nearly 2,000 law enforcement agencies in the U.S. In June, Amazon changed its footage-sharing policy to allow police to request access to video via its Neighbors app, though users can opt-out from seeing such requests, according to the Electronic Frontier Foundation. The Orlando Police Department controversially pilot-tested another Amazon software, the face-matching system Rekognition, several years ago before abandoning it amid concerns about technical glitches and doubts about its effectiveness in identifying people accurately."
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‘STORY: "Big Brother is watching’: Osceola sheriff unveils real-time crime monitoring center," published by The Orlando Sentinel on September 22, 2021. Reporter Cristobal Reyes. Cristóbal Reyes is a journalist on the Orlando Sentinel's Justice & Safety team, covering crime, law enforcement, the justice system and breaking news. A graduate of the University of Central Florida, he previously worked for the Palatka Daily News.
Osceola County deputy sheriffs will now be aided by crime analysts providing information about potential crimes as they happen, officials said as the Sheriff’s Office unveiled its Real-Time Crime Center on Wednesday.
Reporters were given a tour of the new facility, housed in the intelligence unit’s wing at the Sheriff’s Office building. Large monitors set up on a wall displayed rows of live 911 calls, TV news broadcasts, social media sites and a map of the county with access to public camera feeds countywide, including at schools run by the Osceola County School District.
The center, currently staffed by eight civilian analysts, though more are expected to be hired, sits behind a door emblazoned with a remodeled agency logo featuring a fortune teller reading a crystal ball and bearing the words, “Making magic happen.”
The agency plans to use intelligence-gathering software — including facial recognition, a technology that civil rights groups like the ACLU have denounced as a threat to privacy and civil liberties — to feed information to patrols responding to emergency calls as well as detectives in ongoing investigations.
“By getting this live, real-time help, we can deploy our personnel to the area and concentrate on what is happening right now, hopefully reducing the amount of time between initial call for service” and possible arrests, said Donna Sita, the Sheriff’s Office’s crime analyst supervisor.
Lt. Justin Boutilier, who oversees the intelligence unit, added, “[Analysts] are gathering daily reports, they’re preparing bulletins, things to disseminate to our partner agencies. ... It’s a pretty busy day here on a daily basis.”
The goal of the $150,000 facility is to reduce response times and solve cases more efficiently. But Sheriff Marcos López said he also intends to use the facility as an anti-terrorism tool, utilizing it to monitor would-be criminals and active shooters along with tracking social media activity by activist movements.
“If you don’t think Big Brother is watching you — come on, you’re on the wrong planet,” Sheriff Marcos López said. “This is not the ‘Big Brother’s watching’ concept, but if you are a criminal ... you better believe, we’re going to use every investigative tool to watch you and make sure we suppress that.”
The push towards more intelligence-based policing comes as other agencies have been scrutinized for potential civil rights violations. The Justice Department recently opened a probe into the Pasco County Sheriff’s Office’s intelligence-gathering programs after the Tampa Bay Times revealed targeted harassment of people with past run-ins with law enforcement and profiling of students deemed to be likely future lawbreakers.
López wouldn’t say whether Osceola’s intelligence unit will follow Pasco’s strategies using the Real-Time Crime Center.
Fusus, the private public-safety company that provides Osceola County’s new map interface, contracts with agencies statewide, with the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office being among the latest to use the platform, according to a company blog post.
An October 2020 tweet also welcomed the Lake County Sheriff’s Office and the St. Cloud Police Department as partner agencies, though it’s unclear if they are still contracted with the company.
“This is the future, knocking down those barriers that were out there before and forging relationships with the community,” John O’Grady, a Fusus representative present at Wednesday’s unveiling, told reporters.
The Sheriff’s Office said it currently only has access to public camera feeds, but López said he hopes the center can eventually access private doorbell cameras powered by Ring, the Amazon-owned home security company that current has partnerships with nearly 2,000 law enforcement agencies in the U.S.
In June, Amazon changed its footage-sharing policy to allow police to request access to video via its Neighbors app, though users can opt-out from seeing such requests, according to the Electronic Frontier Foundation.
The Orlando Police Department controversially pilot-tested another Amazon software, the face-matching system Rekognition, several years ago before abandoning it amid concerns about technical glitches and doubts about its effectiveness in identifying people accurately"
The entire story can ve read at:
PUBLISHER'S NOTE: I am monitoring this case/issue. Keep your eye on the Charles Smith Blog for reports on developments. The Toronto Star, my previous employer for more than twenty incredible years, has put considerable effort into exposing the harm caused by Dr. Charles Smith and his protectors - and into pushing for reform of Ontario's forensic pediatric pathology system. The Star has a "topic" section which focuses on recent stories related to Dr. Charles Smith. It can be found at: http://www.thestar.com/topic/charlessmith. Information on "The Charles Smith Blog Award"- and its nomination process - can be found at: http://smithforensic.blogspot.com/2011/05/charles-smith-blog-award-nominations.html Please send any comments or information on other cases and issues of interest to the readers of this blog to: hlevy15@gmail.com. Harold Levy: Publisher: The Charles Smith Blog;
