I was taken aback to read about a new tactic being employed by some California jurisdictions.
In Oakland and beyond, police called to crime scenes are increasingly looking for more than shell casings and fingerprints. They’re scanning for Teslas parked nearby, hoping their unique outward-facing cameras captured key evidence. And, the Chronicle has found, they’re even resorting to obtaining warrants to tow the cars to ensure they don’t lose the video.
The trend offers a window into how mass surveillance — the expansion of cameras as well as license-plate scanners, security doorbells and precise cellphone tracking — is changing crime-fighting. While few cars have camera systems similar to Teslas, that could change rapidly, especially as the technology in vehicles continues to improve.
“We have all these mobile video devices floating around,” said Sgt. Ben Therriault, president of the Richmond Police Officers Association.
Therriault said he and other officers now frequently seek video from bystander Teslas, and usually get the owners’ consent to download it without having to serve a warrant. Still, he said, tows are sometimes necessary, if police can’t locate a Tesla owner and need the video “to pursue all leads.”
“It’s the most drastic thing you could do,” he acknowledged.
In at least three instances in July and August, Oakland police sought to tow a Tesla into evidence to obtain — via a second court order — its stored video. Officers cited the cars’ “Sentry Mode” feature, a system of cameras and sensors that records noise and movement around the vehicle when it is empty and locked, storing it in a USB drive in the glove box.
There's more at the link.
At present the "sentry mode" feature appears to be limited to Tesla autos - but I'm sure other manufacturers are working on including something like it into their high-end vehicles. That means those brands will also be targeted by police as potential treasure-troves of evidence, if they're parked anywhere near a crime scene.
I'll certainly be very unhappy indeed if I come looking for my vehicle, only to find it's been towed by a police department due to potential evidence that it may contain. They won't be certain the evidence is there - how can they be, when they haven't yet looked for it? - but that won't stop them glomming onto the car and preventing me from using it. There's more. What if they use their possession of the vehicle to go on a "fishing expedition", inspecting all my belongings and possessions and deciding whether they have any problem with any of them? What if I have ammunition, or liquor, or other expensive products in the load compartment (entirely legally, of course, being shopping I haven't yet unloaded or something like that)? How can I be sure I'll get them back? (If you say I should automatically trust police not to appropriate them, you're living in a dream world. Many cops won't - but a lot of cops will.)
I can see all sorts of negatives here for the vehicle owner - but that doesn't seem to bother the police who are impounding their wheels.
Peter
21 comments:
Me at the auto parts store: Can I get a rotor, cap, and plugs for '97 Jeep? Thanks...
Me buying a car on the Tesla website: 'Just kidding... You'll NEVER catch me on the Tesla website!
And I bet the owner of the vehicle will also be responsible for paying to have their car released from the impound lot.
The last point about feckless cops stealing valuable goods is a good argument in favor of getting an in-vehicle safe/lockbox for valuables like firearms, ammunition, electronics, jewelry, and similar items to be locked in while the vehicle is unattended. The benefits transcend the potential for cops to swipe stuff, too. And absent a warrant or exigent circumstances paired with probable cause, the police can’t (legally) pop open a separate container within the vehicle.
What about the miscreant about whom the police are seeking information taking umbrage about the Tesla owner being an unwitting and perhaps even an unwilling snitch?
How long before Ford's surveillance cameras start having Fords (and other cars?) impounded for videoing a crime scene. I had guessed at Ford sending the data to Insurance companies, but having the police take your vehicle is a whole new wrinkle. And to go further, how long will it be before "law enforcement access" is built into the Ford surveillance system.
Oh my, that would torque me off.
Couldn't happen to a better car owner.
How difficult would it be to defeat those in-vehicle safes/lockboxes in the comfort of the impound yard?
Commies gotta commie. And their jackbooted thugs gotta be thugs.
Yeah, gives a whole new meaning to 'search and seizure'...
Who will be the enterprising lad to figure out how to take advantage of the e-bombs helpfully parked in the kill zone du jour? Sauron-eye-mobile just waiting to be sparked into an
unquenchable initiator for a poor man's fuel air deflagration device? Break a window, toss in a few assorted containers of accelerant, one leaky one, and a lit road flare.
*clicks chess clock*
Over to you...
If the cops get a warrant to tow my Tesla for the video memory, do they also then have sufficient cause to grab anything illegal that I might have in the car, and prosecute me for it? This could be a probable-cause nightmare.
The really funny bit is that we're talking about City of Oakland cops who have not solved a single property crime in 20 years. Honestly, who believes the cops these days about anything? This is like the Feds popping all the lockboxes at a bank and telling the owners that if they want their stuff back from their bank deposit box all they have to do is come on in and sight it and sign for it. I won't be surprised if Tesla makes owner video security lockouts on their cars to put an end to this nonsense.
And thus do the police descend further from police, to douchebadges.
"All your data is belong to us!"
The Founders would have killed that entire department on sight for violations to the Bill Of Rights, and any judge who'd sign off on a warrant under the theory of "there might be something there we can use." And they'd be right for doing so.
But keep toting your personal tracking devices 24/7, and driving your Snitchmobiles.
Big Brother approves.
And you can talk to supposedly smart people today who see ZERO PROBLEMS with Big Brother style cameras being installed everywhere....
The last part is the one that gets me... yes, they work FOR leviathan, but their job is protecting US. Leviathan just signs the checks that we pay for.
How can a citizen defend themselves against technology wielded by third party designates? Cops and prosecutors aren't technologists. They will act on their perception of filtered output from private sources, and misinterpret that output to be favorable to their narrative. If they're not getting the version they want, they farm out the job until somebody gives them the version they're looking for. Misinterpreted evidence is how prosecutors get convictions and defense lawyers get aquittals. The truth does not play well with our justice system.
Court clerks schedule cases to be prosecuted for win rate, not throughput. The wrongdoer who's personal lawyers spring him next morning, and refer him to colleagues who practice criminal law will see his case hearings scheduled and rescheduled, and eventually reduced to a minor, if expensive infraction. The unwashed face time in the pokey and multiple fines and fees. They pay for their probation supervision. Incarceration is often a racket.
In the alternate universe, a J C.Whitney clone sells camera caps for your tesla, to keep it from observing scary things, like blinders on a horse. Every technological innovation has technological vulnerabilities.
In the United States of America of my youth, these invasions of a citizen's privacy wouldn't have been tolerated without a clear need endorsed in a court by a judge reluctant to meddle with the Constitution. That has changed.
rick m
This is why I drive a 20-year-old car with no satellite radio. It also has an millennial theft device ( 5 speed stick shift).
I leave my cell phone at home if I am feeling particularly paranoid.
Depends on the safe/lockbox. And that’s not the point. Any locked item can be opened with enough effort. The point is that having it locked away (A) increases the barrier to entry, literally, providing greater protection to valuables, and (B) provides another layer of legal security, should law enforcement decide to pop it open without a warrant anyway.
Your going to put your groceries in that lock box?
Your dry cleaning?
Good thing Ford doesn't have OnStar or that footage could be uploaded straight to the police.
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