

Police use new tool to source crowds for evidence - a_olt
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_CROWDSOURCING_EVIDENCE?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

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calcsam
"Designers say users can post anonymously and should strip metadata from files
they send."

Talk about poor design. Instead of automatically stripping metadata, they rely
on users to do so. On a mobile phone.

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pavel_lishin
Would you trust them if they auto-stripped the metadata for you?

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aidenn0
I think I would strip the metadata, but also want them to auto-strip.

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Canada
They should prompt the user. Let the user decide what metadata to include and
review it before submission. Personally, I would probably leave all the
metadata intact and leave contact information if I were submitting pictures of
a riot.

I don't agree with Nate Cardozo. If you're in public then you may be
photographed and those photos may be shared with other parties, including law
enforcement. More concerning is access to the database of photos. Anyone who
is accused must have full access. It wouldn't be right if prosecutors were
able to withhold exculpatory evidence.

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aidenn0
I live in Santa Barbara (neighboring Isla Vista). At least judging by
portrayal in local media, there has been a lot of locals sympathetic to the
police; the general feeling I get is that those living in IV blame all the
out-of-towners for the various parties getting out of control (Including
Floatopia/Deltopia and Haloween).

With similar party-turned-riots at the college I went to, the majority
involved were students, so I think something like this would get less
assistance.

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cushychicken
Anyone who remembers the complete fiasco of Reddit trying to catch the Boston
Marathon bombers can tell you one scenario in which this technology can go
horribly, horribly wrong.

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elwell
My startup automatically collects photos & videos that are shared (Instagram,
Twitter, Vine, Flickr, Youtube) that were taken at events (geotag, hashtag,
contextual analysis). It can consequently be used for this purpose as well.

Example event: [http://wesawit.com/events/bruce-springsteen-and-the-e-
street...](http://wesawit.com/events/bruce-springsteen-and-the-e-street-band-
at-bbt-center-2014-04-29-52fa03f7165dc)

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wil421
>And since it uses remote database servers that police access online, floods
of data won't cause system crashes or be expensive to store. Most agencies,
Edson said, "don't have lots of bandwidth lying around."

I dont really get what they mean here. Are they saying since the DB is in the
_cloud_ /remote it isnt subject to crashing?

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r00fus
I read it as this: the police are outsourcing the crowd-sourcing to a "valued
partner" who may or may not have ties with the commissioners, legislators or
city officials that have decision making power.

ie, it's yet another public-private partnership that is ripe for crony
capitalism. Also absent is any discussions of ramifications on misuse (what
happens when this turns into a snitch-line?)

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afarrell
What is the difference between a "snitch-line" and the specific purpose for
which this was designed? What is wrong with a "snitch-line"?

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tedks
It promotes "snitch culture." Which you might pattern-match with gang talk
about "no snitching" until you realize that the ultimate snitch culture was
the Soviet Union and satellites.

What's wrong with a snitch line is that everyone has _something_ to hide, and
that everyone also does things that look unsavory at times. Nobody wants to
live looking over their shoulder every minute of the day. Nobody wants to live
thinking that their being in an unusual place at an unusual time will lead to
someone "saying something."

That's not even going into malicious use.

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sukuriant
This link doesn't work for me. I'm taken to AP's "pick where you live" page :/

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aylons
Same here. At first, I though selecting any state would lead me to the
article, but it just opened a drop-down menu, and clicking it does nothing.

Very frustrating. Any ideas, anyone?

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tbrake
Looks like the querystring was cut off :
[http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_CROWDSOURCING_EVID...](http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_CROWDSOURCING_EVIDENCE?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT)
takes me to the story.

