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If you post something to
If you post something to social media and make it publically available is it really spying to analyze that type of information?
By itself, no
The issue comes when that gets put into a dossier created especially on you, and more and more stuff gets put in there and then one day, we get a new mayor and a new police commissioner less concerned about civil liberties and somebody calls up that dossier, browses it and decides it's time to do something about you.
I wish I were just being paranoid here, but it's been done before by people who didn't fully buy into the whole First Amendment thing - by the FBI under Hoover and by NYPD in the same time period.
Devil's Advocate
But, wasn't the last big bust of that gang in Dot/old Columbia Point busted up in part because of their youtube music videos where they bragged/explained in detail about the actual crimes they committed? I don't see a problem with police monitoring groups/gangs by what they post on facebook/twitter/youtube. They certainly have free speech - just like they have the right to be idiots and post publicly about the crimes they committed.
Maybe
But collecting public evidence like that is the same as collecting evidence off the street.
What BPD wants to do is akin to collecting everybody's family photo albums and storing them (indefinitely?) In the case that a future crime is committed (or a future administrator gives no fucks about the first and fourteenth amendments). They want to data mine everyone and everything,f or future use, instead of just monitoring suspects that they have a good reason (usually court sanctioned ) to monitor.
They want to collect massive amounts of data on citizens so they can retroactively use it. That's getting into precrime territory.
There's legitimate questions on if this is even legal.
Then you get into the security of such data, and problems with hacking. Typivally the smaller the organization, the more open to attack their data becomes due to budget constraints. Since the government handles it, suddenly its open to FOIRs, everyone's online presence packed neatly by the government.
Plus it doesn't really help how they're using it now. Tips and gumshoe detective work is already working now.
anon2
I think this is why they are spending 1.2 million on it instead of $12,000.
Maybe
But that's a federal grant. What happens when grants dry up?
What happens in six years when the grabts are no longer there, the hill doesn't want to fund it, and the software is known to have a security exploit and is now 11 revisions from what BPD is still using.
/IT Woes
In 2011, BRIC spied on Occupy JP, Carlos and Mélida Arredondo a
BPD BRIC was tracking people because of their political advocacy about 5 years ago.
It demonstrates they haven't figured our how to respect people's 1st and 4th amendment rights.
We would never tolerate police staking out someone's home because they're in Occupy Boston or anti-Iraq war protestors if their was no other cause of suspicion even though staking out your home from the street is not illegal. We recognize that doing it because of your political beliefs is a violation of the principal of those rights,
In 2011, BRIC spied on Occupy JP, Carlos and Mélida Arredondo and others
The BRIC just gathers information....
They don't spy on anyone. If the Boston police wants to spy on someone and send that info to the BRIC, the BRIC will file it, but the BRIC doesn't have the staff to so what that article said it does.
(Also 99% of what the BRIC does is regional crime, something that federal fusion center type places are usually criticized for)
A police officer never ceases to be a citizen
You're right, what JFK, RFK and Hoover did to MLK Jr. was awful but that was secret wiretapping.
A police officer never ceases to be a citizen. If an officer "friend requests" a criminal and the criminal is dumb enough to accept the request and post criminal activity they deserve to get caught. In fact, a male Detective friend of mine posts as an attractive female (fake picture) and almost all of "his" friend requests are accepted. Once you have one friend, your bound to get mutual friends, especially in that crowd. Deception, ruse and trickery have long been allowed by the courts. I doubt BPD will be snooping on anyone but the high impact players. I wish them well.
A friend of yours
Suure. And does this "friend" like to dress up in special clothing while he's doing this?
Sure
But that's not what this software does. No friend request needed. No set to public privacy needed. And your posts and data will be swept up with that criminals post as well.
Better not have any enemies fish! We're innocent, so we have nothing to worry about, right?
That "dossier" is going to have more condifential stuff though.
Criminal records that you can't access from regular CORI records, FIO systems info, registry info, CPclear and COPlink data that only law enforcement can get.
I think the 1.2 million dollar price tag is what is freaking everyone out because it makes it seem like infomation is really hard to get. Other departments have the same system at a fraction of the cost but Boston likes to have a system plus all these other systems to keep the first system in check. You should see how much the department spent on the Internal Affairs system which you could probably safely do with just a standard $99.99 microsoft product from Best Buy.
Check out a laptop and use it anywhere in the library...
Cambridge. New Laptop Kiosk. Check out a laptop and use it anywhere in the library http://www.cambridgema.gov/cpl
The new laptop kiosk at the Main Library allows for patrons to check out laptops and use them throughout the library space.
For more information, visit the Information Commons desk in the Main Library or call 617-349-4425
The laptop kiosk is funded by the Friends of the Cambridge Public Library http://www.cambridgema.gov/cpl
__________ __________
Boston. Laptop Lending and Computer Instruction
Every Boston Public Library location, except the Central Branch, has laptops available for library card holders to borrow for up to 2 hours of in-library use.
Please read the Laptop Lending borrowing guidelines and contract for more information http://www.bpl.org/general/technology.htm
A city-wide instruction initiative, in collaboration with the Boston Housing Authority and the Boston Centers for Youth and Family, is offered at every library branch and at other sites around the city.
Computer instruction labs are located at the Central Library at Copley Square.
Instruction at all other locations is on library laptops (also available for in-library use).
See more information about computer classes and technology instruction at the Boston Public Library http://www.bpl.org/general/technology.htm
no more spying
yeah, i don't favor more scrutiny from the police when i haven't been accused of any crimes...
aren't we supposed to have some sort of national document which defends us against unreasonable searches or something?
Social Monitoring
including sentiment analysis, is something nearly every corporation out there does in one way or another, and they use it for the same reason BPD would: to determine whether/how they should respond. A few companies that make this software are actually based right here. If people are going to be upset at BPD for doing it, they should also be yelling at pretty much every major corporation out there for "spying." If we're talking about somehow getting into private accounts without a warrant, that's different, but that doesn't appear to be the case here.
Not to say there shouldn't be concern, but the concern shouldn't be around the act of filtering publicly available information based on a set of keywords–ever use Google? I'm sorry, but this in itself is NOT spying.
In my own experience, the sentiment identification is actually quite accurate in these programs, it's context that software can't necessarily understand. Identifying context/interpreting the message, alongside how the data is actually used/stored (as Adam mentioned in a reply above), is where the concern should be. What BPD needs is a strong governance policy that can be kept in check, and a few highly trained, specialized officers and/or staff members to handle the data and work alongside "the brass" to get this right. Some of that $1.4 mil could easily go to that, there's no need to spend that much on the software alone and you don't need any special hardware for it.