Archive for 'Surveillance'

“School district police officers here completed a months-long drone training program at Sanchez Elementary on Friday.

This spring, Drone Pilot Inc., a Central Texas training firm, taught four officers from the McAllen Independent School District Police Department on the usage of drones. The 100-hour training, which began in February, went through various real-life scenarios.

Friday, the officers had their final exam on completing would-be scenarios of search and rescue. Their drone skills were tested on finding a missing child/endangered adult and identifying an unknown object, a skill that could help diffuse a bomb scare. Another mission was going through hazardous materials like an ammonia leak from a car.
Gene Robinson, vice president, co-founder and flight team director of Drone Pilot, said the officers learned to problem solve and jointly worked together in their missions.

“They (officers) will use the skills that we taught them, go out and try to solve,” Robinson said.
The drones will be used for faster response times and be used for investigative purposes to hold aerial views of parking lots, reconstruct collisions, look for evidence/crime scenes, and assess structural damage to buildings after a natural disaster or arson and most commonly, locate intruders in and around campuses.

“This training will be good for the public to keep them safe,” McAllen ISD Police Sgt. Charles Eric Treviño said. “When you look at it at ground level, it doesn’t look the same when you take it at aerial photographs. It’s different.”

“It’ll take minutes versus possible hours bringing an agency to check it out,” Treviño added about response times.

The drone training was divided into three phases. The introductory section covered legal issues and copyright information. Section two, covered the proper usage of equipment and regulations with recording and documenting the missions on logbooks. The final section was team cooperation and following proper procedures before beginning a mission.
Government use of aerial drones became much easier when the Federal Aviation Administration flipped the switch on new regulations last year, prompting some law enforcement agencies to adopt the technology.

The San Marcos Police Department has purchased a drone that will be used for investigations into vehicle crashes involving serious injury or death.

Before the FAA created new regulations last summer, the Austin Fire Department had already been operating drones to monitor and respond to wildfires for more than a year under a rare exemption that made it one of the first public safety agencies in the country allowed to use drones.”

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“Barona Resort and Casino security guards alerted San Diego County Sheriff’s Department deputies to an international counterfeiting operation.
Deputies arrested Lien Do, Hao Nguyen, and Ben Ven Pham on Christmas Day last year.
They found $300,000 worth of counterfeit chips in the suspects’ car.
“It appears that what they were seeking to do was convert those chips into cash and to walk out the casino with the cash,” said Prosecutor Daniel Shim.
The defendants were charged with multiple felonies, including grand theft, burglary, forgery and possession of counterfeit marks.
“When the sheriff’s department searched their home in Garden Grove, they found about $2 million in casino labels,” Shim said. “During Mr. Pham’s interview, he indicated he received those chips from Vietnam.”
Two of the defendants plead guilty to lesser charges and are serving one-year jail terms. Charges against a third defendant were dropped and he returned to Vietnam.
“The Sheriff’s department did a great job in investigating this case. They did a very thorough investigation,” Shim said.
The criminal investigation expanded to at least six other casinos in Southern California, several of which are located in San Diego.
It remains unclear if any of the fake chips were actually used in any of those casinos.
“It is still unknown if the operation had any ties to organized crimes,” Shim said.”

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PARAMUS – An alert security guard who spotted a Facebook user selling designer watches told police the man resembled a shoplifter who stole merchandise from Macy’s, authorities said Thursday.

The man, Alfredo “Freddy Vega,” 49, was arrested Wednesday and now faces shoplifting and other charges, according to Paramus Police Chief Kenneth R. Ehrenberg.

The theft of several Tommy Hilfiger watches occurred April 7 at the Westfiled Garden State Plaza, Ehrenberg said in a statement.

“The security manager at Macy’s found an Internet posting that the stolen watches were being sold online by a male with a Facebook profile identified as ‘Freddy Vega,’” Ehrenberg said.

“The Facebook picture resembled the suspect in the theft,” the chief said.

Paramus Police Det. Mark sent out an all-points bulletin that included surveillance photos and the Facebook photo of Vega, Ehrenberg said.

After receiving the bulletin, Lt. Michael Cumiskey of the Bergen County Sheriff’s Office recognized Vega from previous times Vega had been jailed, Ehrenberg said.

“Based upon this information a warrant was issued for Mr. Vega,” Ehrenberg said.

About 6 p.m. on April 27, a suspect later identified as Vega shoplifted several pairs of men’s shoes from J. Crew in the Bergen Towne Center, police said.

The suspect ran from the scene before police arrived.

On May 3, Paramus Police Officer David Betancourt was flagged down by a security officer at Westfield Garden State Plaza. The security officer told Betancourt that a man who had shoplifted from Sunglasses Hut the day before was again at the mall.

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Columbus OH April 1 2017 Pilot Sylvain Desjardins and passenger David Ayotte were the only two aboard the twin-engine turboprop that left Grand Bahama Island on Wednesday, bound for Windsor, Canada. But they were not alone.

About 2,400 miles to the west, in Riverside, California, the Piper Navajo was being watched, like many closing in on U.S. borders, especially from the Caribbean.

When the plane experienced mechanical problems and diverted from its flight path toward Athens, Ohio, the U.S. Customs and Board Protection Air and Marine Operations Center and other federal and local agencies went into action.

The Department of Homeland Security notified the Athens County sheriff’s office and OU police that the pilot planned to land at Gordon K. Bush Ohio University Airport. The airport is not a port of entry with a customs station. Officials told the locals to hold the plane for federal authorities.

Homeland Securities investigation agents and Customs and Border Protection agents based in Columbus hurried southeast to Athens. Homeland Security said a database search revealed that both men had prior drug convictions in Canada.

The plane landed about 2:30 p.m. and the pilot told OU police and Athens County deputies who met the plane that mechanical problems necessitated the emergency landing. The California center notified Desjardins that his plane was going to be searched. Desjardins consented to the search, according to an affidavit filed in federal court in Columbus.

Agents found more than 290 pounds of cocaine hidden aboard the plane’s tail section.The amount likely is the largest cocaine seizure in southern Ohio, said U.S. Attorney Benjamin Glassman in Columbus.

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DELTONA, Fla. – A Walmart employee in Volusia County was arrested Monday night after a fellow employee noticed counterfeit bills in the Deltona store’s safe over the weekend.

On Sunday, an employee noticed the fake bills in the safe’s $10,000 cash bundle were counterfeit and told a manager who took a closer look at the bills, officials said.

The 76 bills totaling $7,600 were blue in appearance, each having a different thickness, texture with “FOR MOTION PICTURE USE ONLY” printed on them, officials said.

Officials said the manager told them the bills were wrapped in a bundle marked “DO NOT USE.”

When loss prevention officer went back to the safe on Monday to take another look at the counterfeit money, the bundle marked was still there, but the fake bills inside were missing, officials said.

After a review of the surveillance footage, officials said that Walmart employee Xiomara Matias-Cruz, 32, was on the footage.

Matias-Cruz who worked in the cash office went into the office on Monday at 6 a.m. to count and verify the money in the safe, which was a part of her normal shift duties.

“Then she found the white “DO NOT USE” package, opened it, made a phone call and appeared to take something from the bundle,” the release said.

Officials said she then left the store and drove off in her vehicle only 15 minutes into her work shift.

Further surveillance video review found that Matias-Cruz opened the safe in the cash office on Friday morning.

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Facebook is cutting police departments off from a vast trove of data that has been increasingly used to monitor protesters and activists.

The move, which the social network announced Monday, comes in the wake of concerns over law enforcement’s tracking of protesters’ social media accounts in places such as Ferguson, Mo., and Baltimore. It also comes at a time when chief executive Mark Zuckerberg says he is expanding the company’s mission from merely “connecting the world” into friend networks to promoting safety and community.

Although the social network’s core business is advertising, Facebook, along with Twitter and Facebook-owned Instagram, also provides developers access to users’ public feeds. The developers use the data to monitor trends and public events. For example, advertisers have tracked how and which consumers are discussing their products, while the Red Cross has used social data to get real-time information during disasters such as Hurricane Sandy.

But the social networks have come under fire for working with third parties who market the data to law enforcement. Last year, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter cut off access to Geofeedia, a start-up that shared data with law enforcement, in response to an investigation by the American Civil Liberties Union. The ACLU published documents that made references to tracking activists at protests in Baltimore in 2015 after the death of a black man, Freddie Gray, while in police custody and also to protests in Ferguson, Mo., in 2014 after the police shooting of Michael Brown, an unarmed black 18-year-old.

On Monday, Facebook updated its instructions for developers to say that they cannot “use data obtained from us to provide tools that are used for surveillance.”

The company also said, in an accompanying blog post, that it had kicked other developers off the platform since it had cut ties with Geofeedia.

Until now, Facebook hasn’t been explicit about who can use information that users post publicly. This can include a person’s friend list, location, birthday, profile picture, education history, relationship status and political affiliation — if they make their profile or certain posts public.

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“A Miami student was sentenced yesterday for cyberstalking on Facebook and Instagram.

Wifredo A. Ferrer, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, and George L. Piro, Special Agent in Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Miami Field Office, made the announcement.

Kassandra Cruz, 23, of Miami, Florida, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Frederico A. Moreno to 22 months in prison, followed by three years of supervised release, a $100 special assessment, and $2,178.32 in restitution, stemming from her conviction on one count of cyberstalking, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 2261(A)(2)(B).

According to court documents, beginning in June 2015, victim “S.B.” received a “friend” request from Cruz on her Instagram and Facebook accounts. In an effort to gain “S.B.’s” friendship, Cruz created a false persona on her Instagram account wherein she portrayed herself as a male who was an active duty U.S. Marine. Under that ruse, “S.B.” accepted the friend request.

From late June 2015 until September 2015, Cruz, posing as Giovanni, “liked” and commented on pictures “S.B.” posted on both her Instagram and Facebook accounts. However, when “S.B.” noticed that Cruz had begun “following” and “liking” all of her friends pages and posts, she became suspicious and “blocked” and “unfollowed” Cruz from her social media accounts.

As a result, Cruz threatened that “S.B.” would face repercussions at her job and with her family if she did not comply, and specifically threatened to expose “S.B.’s” past via social media. The threats to “S.B.” persisted from Cruz on social media and later via text messaging, and Cruz ultimately demanded on multiple occasions $100,000 in exchange for no further contact, adding that she “knew where “S.B.’s family lived and they should watch their backs because someone would be heading to…to deal with them.” In total, “S.B.” received over 900 unwanted calls and text messages since the beginning of 2016, and the extortionate and threatening messages continued until late April 2016. Ultimately, Cruz was arrested and taken into custody during a pre-arranged meeting in Miami.

Mr. Ferrer commended the investigative efforts of the FBI. This case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Jodi L. Anton and Francis Viamontes.

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“I’ve got an admission to make: I am kind of addicted to self-improvement. I’m not sure when this phenomenon started, but it turns out that I am not the only one – it’s a $10 billion per year business.

But what I am really obsessed with is making myself a better investigator, mostly because after 15 years in this business I have realized that there are no books or courses that actually teach what I do (which is why I made one—details to follow).

And because of technology and the changing landscape of the business, what I do today is almost entirely different from what I was doing 10 years ago.

So how do you keep up your skills and bring them to the next level?

1. Follow blogs.

Of course there is Pursuit Magazine, and there are dozens of other blogs out there worth reading, but PI Buzz, PINow.com, The Ethical Investigator, Guns, Gams & Gumshoes and Private Eye Confidential are at the top of my list.

2. Read books.

3. Write.

Whether you write novels or articles about your investigative methods, writing helps you synthesize your thoughts and provide more clarity.”

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“Brian Leslie is essentially saying the same thing your mother did— “don’t jump to conclusions.” But the forensic deception expert is saying it to cops as a potential way to reduce wrongful convictions and instances of profiling—a number he thinks can be improved by at least 30 percent.

Leslie, who works with Criminal Case Consultants analyzing witness testimony in wrongful conviction cases, says the difference lies in the predisposition of the police officer, which subsequently affects how s/he vets witnesses and the information they provide.

A “predisposed officer” who has formed an opinion based on emotion is more likely to disallow or overlook information that is averse to the officer’s initial, kneejerk theory of the perpetrator. According to Leslie, this predisposition is the main reason officers both subconsciously and consciously profile specific groups of people.

To rectify this, Leslie suggests using a different type of investigational method.

Traditional police criminal investigations use a deductive method, in which an initial theory is formed based on information provided by witnesses and/or confidential informants. However, Leslie says by using an inductive method of investigation, it detaches the officer from the emotional elements of a case, allowing a more analytical vetting process.

Simply put, this means the officer analyzes witness credibility first, and then the information provided. This inductive process forces the officer to accept all information by all sources, then categorize it by relevance and credibility. It’s this small investigational difference Leslie points to as being the culprit behind wrongful convictions that can, literally, destroy lives.

The variance between deductive and inductive investigations is part of what Leslie calls the “Mr. X Theory,” which he expands upon in his new book, “Visual Liar.”

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“The world has seen the most unsettling attack yet resulting from the so-called Rowhammer exploit, which flips individual bits in computer memory. It’s a technique that’s so surgical and controlled that it allows one machine to effectively steal the cryptographic keys of another machine hosted in the same cloud environment.

Until now, Rowhammer has been a somewhat clumsy and unpredictable attack tool because it was hard to control exactly where data-corrupting bit flips happened. While previous research demonstrated that it could be used to elevate user privileges and break security sandboxes, most people studying Rowhammer said there was little immediate danger of it being exploited maliciously to hijack the security of computers that use vulnerable chips. The odds of crucial data being stored in a susceptible memory location made such hacks largely a matter of chance that was stacked against the attacker. In effect, Rowhammer was more a glitch than an exploit.

Now, computer scientists have developed a significantly more refined Rowhammer technique they call Flip Feng Shui. It manipulates deduplication operations that many cloud hosts use to save memory resources by sharing identical chunks of data used by two or more virtual machines. Just as traditional Feng Shui aims to create alignment or harmony in a home or office, Flip Feng Shui can massage physical memory in a way that causes crypto keys and other sensitive data to be stored in locations known to be susceptible to Rowhammer.”

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