National Dragnet Is a Click Away

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Source: Washington Post

Authorities to Gain Fast and Expansive Access to Records

By Robert O'Harrow Jr. and Ellen Nakashima
Washington Post Staff Writers
Thursday, March 6, 2008; Page A01

Several thousand law enforcement agencies are creating the foundation of a domestic intelligence system through computer networks that analyze vast amounts of police information to fight crime and root out terror plots.

As federal authorities struggled to meet information-sharing mandates after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, police agencies from Alaska and California to the Washington region poured millions of criminal and investigative records into shared digital repositories called data warehouses, giving investigators and analysts new power to discern links among people, patterns of behavior and other hidden clues.

Those network efforts will begin expanding further this month, as some local and state agencies connect to a fledgling Justice Department system called the National Data Exchange, or N-DEx. Federal authorities hope N-DEx will become what one called a "one-stop shop" enabling federal law enforcement, counterterrorism and intelligence analysts to automatically examine the enormous caches of local and state records for the first time.


Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/05/AR2008030503656.html?hpid=topnews

---

Now, people, let's be honest. When it comes to our new domestic spy agency's establishment and guaranteed exponential growth, do you really it makes a difference whether the next president is named Hillary, Obama, John, or (God help us) Ralph? He or she is going to use it. Count on it.

[ixion]

1. I agree. It's much easier to open Pandora's Box than it is to close it

and thanks to a compliant and complicit congress, that is precisely what has happened. It will not soon go away, just because someone else takes the helm, it will only continue. :(

[Homer Wells]

4. I like to think of it

as attempting to put bird-shit back into the bird.

:donut: (Still tryin to wake up (yawn)

[OKthatsIT]

20. Complacent Congress is right.

How does it feel to vote, win, get your Representative in...then they betray you, over and over.

[AndyTiedye]

22. Not Complacency, BLACKMAIL

[leveymg]

2. We don't need no stinkin' warrants.

[whistle]

3. How about ALL phones in the country, Bush wiped his ass with FISA copies

...the thought police are already in place

[OKthatsIT]

5. Authorities to Gain Fast and Expansive Access to Records

Source: Washington Post

National Dragnet Is a Click Away
Authorities to Gain Fast and Expansive Access to Records
By Robert O'Harrow Jr. and Ellen Nakashima
Washington Post Staff Writers
Thursday, March 6, 2008; Page A01

Several thousand law enforcement agencies are creating the foundation of a domestic intelligence system through computer networks that analyze vast amounts of police information to fight crime and root out terror plots.

As federal authorities struggled to meet information-sharing mandates after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, police agencies from Alaska and California to the Washington region poured millions of criminal and investigative records into shared digital repositories called data warehouses, giving investigators and analysts new power to discern links among people, patterns of behavior and other hidden clues.

Those network efforts will begin expanding further this month, as some local and state agencies connect to a fledgling Justice Department system called the National Data Exchange, or N-DEx. Federal authorities hope N-DEx will become what one called a "one-stop shop" enabling federal law enforcement, counterterrorism and intelligence analysts to automatically examine the enormous caches of local and state records for the first time.

Although Americans have become accustomed to seeing dazzling examples of fictional crime-busting gear on television and in movies, law enforcement's search for clues has in reality involved a mundane mix of disjointed computers, legwork and luck.

These new systems are transforming that process. "It's going from the horse-and-buggy days to the space age, that's what it's like," said Sgt. Chuck Violette of the Tucson police department, one of almost 1,600 law enforcement agencies that uses a commercial data-mining system called Coplink.

With Coplink, police investigators can pinpoint suspects by searching on scraps of information such as nicknames, height, weight, color of hair and the placement of a tattoo. They can find hidden relationships among suspects and instantly map links among people, places and events. Searches that might have taken weeks or months -- or which might not have been attempted, because of the amount of paper and analysis involved -- are now done in seconds.

On one recent day, Tucson detective Cynthia Butierez demonstrated that power in an office littered with paper and boxes of equipment. Using a regular desktop computer and Web browser, she logged onto Coplink to search for clues about a fraud suspect. She entered a name the suspect used on a bogus check. A second later, a list of real names came up, along with five incident reports.

She told the system to also search data warehouses built by Coplink in San Diego and Orange County, Calif. -- which have agreements to share with Tucson -- and came up with the name of a particular suspect, his age and a possible address. She asked the software to find the suspect's links to other people and incidents, and then to create a visual chart displaying the findings. Up popped a display with the suspect at the center and cartoon-like images of houses, buildings and people arrayed around him. A final click on one of the houses brought up the address of an apartment and several new names, leads she could follow.

MUCH MORE...

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/05/AR2008030503656.html?nav=rss_email/components

---

This beyond Orwell's imagination, folks!

[jpak]

6. Does this work for WH, RNC, K. Rove email retrieval??

:shrug:

[mike_c]

7. the American security state-- one nation, under surveilance....

:puke:

[indepat]

10. With liberty, justice, the land of the free, and the home of the brave just a

memory in this, our newly established Orwellian land: seig heil. :puke:

[TechBear_Seattle]

8. I don't have a problem with sharing legitimate, legal police records

I actually see this as an important step forward, as criminal investigations are often held up or made impossible because of antiquated data storage systems and incompatabilities between different cities, even different departments within the same office.

The challenge will be, of course, to keep this strictly within the boundaries of law enforcement and the pursuit of criminals. It must not be allowed to become a general catch-all for domestic surveillance.

[selador]

21. i agree

all this does is make information easier to share between agencies. information that is already accessible to police, (and in many cases the public) just not as easily. a detective might have to call up 20 different agencies to get the same info he can get in a key click. boolean searches and other methods can be applied that would not be practicable. you can't call the records section of 50 different agencies on every case you have to see if they have any intel on this person, aliases etc.

computerization has helped citizens too. you used ot have to go downtown to access assessor records. now they are online. tons of other public records are now available online, that all required car trips, forms and waiting periods in the past.

ditto for criminal records. any private citizen can spend some time on the web and get a person's list of criminal cases in a given jurisdiction, at least they can where i live.

but frequently, cops in podunk PD have no access to records in pleasantburg PD right next door, or any of a number of agencies.

and fwiw, most other countries already have much more centralized access. this would be old news for them

in the US, due to our govt. structure, we have literally thousands of law enforcement agencies where other countries have one or a few. it's a way to share information.

as long as (it's a big caveat), the information is collected via procedures and safeguards (which of course sometimes its not), this sounds reasonable.

[midnight]

9. Before 9-11 I would believe this statement.

Several thousand law enforcement agencies are creating the foundation of a domestic intelligence system through computer networks that analyze vast amounts of police information to fight crime and root out terror plots.

Now it is just another attempt to spy.....

[Zorra]

11. All progressives will be suspect and databased by these fascists.

If your political ideology conflicts with the fascist conception of how a citizen should think, believe, and behave, and you have made your political ideas public (including expressing them on the internet), you will be scrutinized each time you are in a situation that law enforcement personnel have any reason to contact you - such as they don't like the way you look, traffic stops, airline flights, crossing borders, etc.

I would not be surprised if this information were made readily accessible to private interests as well.

[Ichingcarpenter]

12. National Dragnet Is a Click Away

Source: Washington Post


Several thousand law enforcement agencies are creating the foundation of a domestic intelligence system through computer networks that analyze vast amounts of police information to fight crime and root out terror plots.

As federal authorities struggled to meet information-sharing mandates after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, police agencies from Alaska and California to the Washington region poured millions of criminal and investigative records into shared digital repositories called data warehouses, giving investigators and analysts new power to discern links among people, patterns of behavior and other hidden clues.

Those network efforts will begin expanding further this month, as some local and state agencies connect to a fledgling Justice Department system called the National Data Exchange, or N-DEx. Federal authorities hope N-DEx will become what one called a "one-stop shop" enabling federal law enforcement, counterterrorism and intelligence analysts to automatically examine the enormous caches of local and state records for the first time.

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/05/AR2008030503656.html?referrer=digg

[Taverner]

13. Expect this to be used for everything from pot smokers to parking tickets

[reprobate]

14. i weep for the America I was born to. It's no longer "Land of the Free, Home of the Brave"

It's now "Land of the surveilled, Home of the Followers,"

[Taverner]

15. At the risk of starting some kind of flamefest, this is why I voted Obama

His Civil Liberties record, both as a lawyer and as a Senator is better than HRC.

[reprobate]

18. You'll get no flames from me! I kept hoping for Gore, and when he wouldn't run

I supported Dennis, but the media didn't take him seriously enough to give him needed publicity.

So when Dennis bowed out, the next best was Edwards, but the moneyed elite didn't support him either.

So when Edwards bowed out, the next best was Obama, and I guess that's who I now support.

Confidentially, I'm getting damned tired of Democrats having to settle for 'next best'.

I keep having this nightmare that the Washington wealth lobby will succeed in pushing Billary into the nomination and we will once again see a neocon president.

Should that happen the Democratic Party will have, over a period of just eight years, succeeded in suicide. Just like the Republican Party.

And just where will THAT leave us?

[Taverner]

19. I don't mind HRC, but Obama has the civil liberties cred so...

[Gala328]

16. This Concerns Me

Obviously this is extremely troubling. Abuse comes in so many forms, it seems. I am saddened by this.

[libodem]

17. Watch out

they will be here to carry off the Democrats.